Hi Everyone I have been contacted by the owner of a property that shares a rear boundary with my IP who is looking into doing a sub division on his block but would like to run his storm water through my property along my side fence to the road. I too have plans to sub divide eventually and am concerned that this may impact that. Apparently i can request to not have an easement noted on my plans. Is that possible ? Logan Council. Has anyone else needed to do this before or had the same requested of them ? If issues arise down the track with it is it my problem as it’s on my property ? if permission is granted would / should I be compensated for it as the tenant will be inconvenienced during the digging and while the land is returned to its current state. I imagine they wouldn’t be too impressed with the works going on and should be compensated for the trouble. Any other pros or cons I have missed ? Thanks in advance.
I am not from Queensland. But in NSW this matter consider as a private easement. Your lawyer need to prepare deed, register land survey the land and indicate location of proposed easement, your valuer need to value the land and your neighbour need to pay you compensation. After that procedure easement plan will register to land title office. You can can prepare a deed nicely so you can use the same easement when you subdivision . So basically benefiting from the easement and also burdening. Easement can be very costly so make sure you not shy away. My small easement 2m wide x 4 m long cost $30k in Sydney
The only way which I am aware of not showing an easement on plans is not to grant one to the adjoining owner. Let them find an alternative solution egg through another property. Of course there are some unregistered easements in existence eg board sewer/by right, old house drainage services and the like. Things to consider: How will the easement benefit you or the block in the future? Will you have rights to connect to it? Who must maintain it? Rights to access for maintenance and replacement How will it impact you or any future subdivision? Will it restrict development on your block? Where would the easement be located? Will this be where you would be putting a driveway? Will it impact your design? Will it restrict how you build to achieve solar access/passive solar design/orientation?
Not showing the easement would potentially deceive a future purchaser of your property and leave you liable to legal action. I agree with @ParraEels post. Both you and your tenant would need to be compensated. The tenant for the disruption and you for the loss of amenity and restriction of your development rights.
Depending on the block you have, it may or may not add value to it. You'll have to look into what your block is able to be future developed as to work out whether the pipes are suitable for you to join into for the future. The proposed pipes might be situated in an uphill flow direction that will be costly to hook into as you would need some type of pump station but depending on the block you might not have an option. If they build pipes on their side they might deny you access to them in the future. I would ask for an exact letter of works with detailed plans of the proposed work being done before letting anyone near your premises, also ask for a time frame too. I've seen this type of stuff go south many times. The pipes might not be able to legally accommodate the flow of water for both blocks due to their size, which you could ask them to make the pipes bigger to do so.
If I were you, I would definitely consider it and look into this in a bit more detail (discuss what is involved with a town planner and/or civil engineer). I assume your neighbour's property slopes towards the rear (i.e. your property), hence the need to direct stormwater through your site in order to provide a lawful point of discharge for your site. If you are planning on subdividing your property in future anyway, it will probably save you some money to allow your neighbour to install this pipe. For one, you can make sure that the neighbour includes a stormwater stub for your property, which you can then discharge into when subdividing in future, which will avoid you constructing a new kerb adapter. The other thing to consider is if you don't agree to provide the stormwater pipe, when you go to subdivide your property, Council may make you provide an upstream stormwater connection for your neighbour anyway (Brisbane City Council does this and Logan may also), so rather than having your neighbour pay for this pipe, you will have to pay for it. Assuming the pipe goes down one side of your property, it shouldn't have any impact on your future subdivision (assuming any new house will be setback off the side boundary). Even if you are planning on building to the side boundary in future, i'm pretty sure you can build over the stormwater pipe. It is reasonable to expect compensation from your neighbour for agreeing to install the pipe. They will need to reinstate any turf/fencing etc as a given. Assuming your neighbour doesn't have any alternatives for managing stormwater (i.e. they can't go through another rear property), you can probably ask for at least $5 - $10k or so for the inconvenience. If will cost them a lot more than that if they need to fill/retain their site to get stormwater out to their own street. Liam
