Sewer main under house in Enoggera

[Sam Yue]

My IP purchasing in Brisbane caused me headache again. Last time, it was just before the day I needed to pay balance deposit, I found out the agent mis-informed the current DHA rent. The rent was said $460 per week, but actually after I called DHA incidently, the lady DHA officer told me it is actually $430. It turned out to be that the agent calculated weekly rent wrong from monthly rent, and I did not recalculate the weekly rent by the monthly rent displayed in the contract either. Remember to get weekly rent, you need to divide the monthly rent by 4.3 something rather than 4. It will be a big difference!

Now I am under conditional contract with an IP in Enoggera, my solicitor brought to my attention that the house has a sewer main underneath across through the whole house. The owner built the house over the the sewer main by using bridging in about 1996. It was council approved. Now my concerns are:

1. If the sewer main has leak, the leak water can wash away the soil under the house and cause subsidence of the house. Or the leaked water can expand clay soil, and can cause structure issue of the house as well.
2. If the sewer main is broken or blocked, will the Urban Utility dig my house to fix it?
3. If the sewer main leak water, will the gas and dirty water cause healthy issue to the people living in the house?

I am unlucky in buying first interstate IP. My solicitor asked 1 week duel diligence extension already. What shall I do now? walk away, negotiate price or accept the fact?

In addition, my solicitor said the house is adjoining to a heritage house. And that will need me to get approval from city council if I do any reno.

Thank you for your comments and help!

 

[vaughan]

... the agent calculated weekly rent wrong from monthly rent, and I did not recalculate the weekly rent by the monthly rent displayed in the contract either.

... Now I am under conditional contract with an IP in Enoggera, my solicitor brought to my attention that the house has a sewer main underneath across through the whole house...

Thank you for your comments and help!

You need to start doing the due diligence! Both of these things are extremely simple to check: learn how to read a contract of sale.

 

[bashworth]

Now I am under conditional contract with an IP in Enoggera, my solicitor brought to my attention that the house has a sewer main underneath across through the whole house. The owner built the house over the the sewer main by using bridging in about 1996. It was council approved. Now my concerns are:

1. If the sewer main has leak, the leak water can wash away the soil under the house and cause subsidence of the house. Or the leaked water can expand clay soil, and can cause structure issue of the house as well.
2. If the sewer main is broken or blocked, will the Urban Utility dig my house to fix it?
3. If the sewer main leak water, will the gas and dirty water cause healthy issue to the people living in the house?



Thank you for your comments and help!

Not sure how things work in Ennogra but in Melbourne part of the procedure before allowing a build over is to do a CCTV survey inspection of the sewer to check that the pipe is in good condition. With the house structure bridging over it the pipe is very unlikely to be damaged.

With modern techniques blocks can be cleared, and even cracked pipes can be repaired working from the manholes, Digging up a sewer really is the very last resort.

Water takes the past of least resistance so 'unless there is a block or the pipe is totally collapsed' the flow will tend to be along the pipe. Generally for sewer operators the bigger problem is groundwater leaking into the sewer!

 

[nww]

Its no big deal these days , if it was an old main it would have been dug up
and incased in large amounts of concrete and given approval by council engineers.
Check further you will find an engineers report but I would be more concerned
with what future owners are going to thing about it just like you are now.

 

[Sam Yue]

You need to start doing the due diligence! Both of these things are extremely simple to check: learn how to read a contract of sale.

Vaughan, the seller has not put the sewer main into the encumbrance section. My solicitor said the sewer main is an undisclosed encumbrance and I have the right to terminate the contract (pursuant to my due diligence condition and under the standard terms of contract.). The seller actually should have disclosed that in the contract, but actually not.

As for the weekly rental, I had not thought it had be told wrongly, so I just calculated it roughly from monthly rental and thought it was right. This simple mistake shocked me.

 

[Sam Yue]

Not sure how things work in Ennogra but in Melbourne part of the procedure before allowing a build over is to do a CCTV survey inspection of the sewer to check that the pipe is in good condition. With the house structure bridging over it the pipe is very unlikely to be damaged.

With modern techniques blocks can be cleared, and even cracked pipes can be repaired working from the manholes, Digging up a sewer really is the very last resort.

Water takes the past of least resistance so 'unless there is a block or the pipe is totally collapsed' the flow will tend to be along the pipe. Generally for sewer operators the bigger problem is groundwater leaking into the sewer!

Thank you bashworth for the info, it is very professional. Do you think I need bother to do a sewer inspection on both the public sewer under the house and the private sewer? Shall do the sewer inspection every a few years?

 

[Sam Yue]

Its no big deal these days , if it was an old main it would have been dug up
and incased in large amounts of concrete and given approval by council engineers.
Check further you will find an engineers report but I would be more concerned
with what future owners are going to thing about it just like you are now.

Nww, thank you. The sewer main under the house was 1.262 meter deep and of 150mm diameter. It was built with unreinforced concrete. It uses bridging, but not encased at all. I wonder whether I can build 1 level up the house to add more rooms without requiring any work on the house foundation to protect the pipe.

 

[bashworth]

As far as the public sewers go normally frequent blockages are the first sign of any issues and the sewer authority should investigate any frequent blockages, not you

For private sewers again frequent (more than one per year) blockages are normally the first sign of things going wrong. In that case you should be able to find a local plumber who can run a camera down the system.

 

[Sam Yue]

As far as the public sewers go normally frequent blockages are the first sign of any issues and the sewer authority should investigate any frequent blockages, not you

For private sewers again frequent (more than one per year) blockages are normally the first sign of things going wrong. In that case you should be able to find a local plumber who can run a camera down the system.

The blockage can be identified much earlier (if tenants and PM work well). However, if it is leakage in sewer, it can happen for many years without known.

 

[bob shovel]

Like others have said there are techniques that can be used and digging is the last option these days.

Best thing to do is call QUU and get details on the sewer, it may have been relined or cleaned or they may have info of the condition. Also get a sewer service diagram (if available) not sure when you get these from in Qld, it will show where your house connects into the main. Do you have a map or sketch?

You can even log onto dial before you dig website and get a map for free. Just sign in and select your block and you will get maps within a day or two - usually a matter of hours.

I used to work for a contractor doing sewer relining works for QUU and they are upgrading A LOT of their mains! If you are worried you could say you have concerns with the line and they can come out and look at it - CCTV the line and review the condition, if its poor they will add it to their massive list, they are upgrading 15-20km of pipe a year of small diameter 150&225 mains.

The main issue would be your house connection as it would likely not be concrete encased if under the house, but i would say its safe to say it would be under the house, Im guessing near the side boundary, a dial before you dig should indicate where it is.