Waste Water Woes
Hi everyone, I've got a new and interesting construction puzzle that I am trying to figure out. I'm hoping that one of you experts out there might have some insight on this one as I have been staring at it too long.
I've got a project I am building that was fully permitted by the City. However when we went to go get our sewer line hooked up (which is implied by the permit), it turns out that it goes through the southern half of my lot (subdivided) which is owner by another party. We dug up the back half of the lot looking for it but haven't been able to find it. Now I can dig new one, but I will need an easement from my neighbor to do this. We've offered him some cash but he isn't cooperating at this point.
My other obvious option is a service extension request which will dig up the street and install a new sewer line just for my house. This is about $30,000 and 3 months of time to do. I want to avoid that if I can of course.
If I can go through the southern lot, it will cost me just a few grand and about 2-3 weeks to tap into the sewer line on the other side of the house to the south.
The city will reject any solution that crosses a lot line to my east or west.
Right now I am trying to offer more cash to the southern lot owner to get an easement to see if he can be motivated with some cash. His main objection is keeping government entities off his property. So I'm not sure what it going on, but he is very anti-state.
I'm also hiring a line locating service to see if they can find the old sewer line that I could not from digging a 40 foot long (entire length of the property) by 5 foot deep trench along the southern half of the lot.
I can't do a septic tank or drainage field because it is too small of a lot (3700 sqft).
At this point I'm coming up with all sorts of crazy ideas like putting a pipe through the airspace of the southern lot. (That's a joke, it would look horrible, but hell it might work with a pump)
Does anyone have experience motivating neighbors to grant easements? My reaction here is to think paint point + incentive, but cash and a promise to use private contractors isn't getting me anywhere.
If I can find the old sewer line, it might just work, but we haven't found that yet.