Neighbors sewer line is on my property, what can I do?

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Neighbors sewer line is on my property, what can I do?

Julie MarquezPro Member
Investor · Skagit County, WA · Member since 2016 · 1k+ posts · 807 votes

I just had a sewer backup at my backyard cottage the other night, but our house was just fine. Come to find out that the side sewer line picks up the cottage, my neighbors house, then our house as it makes it way to the main at the street. Only the cottage and my neighbor had issues. Our cottage tenant vacated and we immediately called a plumber to unclog the line and fix the issue. The next day my tenant comes home and his toilet is not flushing and is bubbling when the other water runs. My neighbor says his sewer is all working okay.

The tenant is out (he was moving out in a week anyway), and I'm still troubling shooting plumbing issues, especially with old 1929 piping out to the street (the cottage piping is new ABS). But if I'm going to fix it right, I am going to separate myself from the neighbor (found out from the City that a new hook up site is easily accessible).

I also found out at our shared sewer line is on MY PROPERTY and I can't find any recording of a sewer easement. Can I kick him off of MY SEWER LINE?

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Drew M.
Professional · Santa Barbara, CA · Member since 2016 · 42 posts · 27 votes
8y

How much time and money are you looking to spend in litigation?  Sounds like both houses have been there for a long time.  You would have to consult with a local attorney to see what kind of rights the neighbor property may have accrued even if there is not a recorded easement.  But it's most likely going to be a fight.  And if you resort to self-help and disconnect his sewer line and tell him to get lost you will not exactly appear sympathetic in any court action.

Probably better to explore an amicable resolution IMHO.

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  • Michele G.
    Ann Arbor, MI · Member since 2017 · 109 posts · 52 votes
    8y
    We’ve run into this a few times. The trouble is determining whose line it actually is. How do you know that is your line and not your neighbors? Could he claim that you’re on his line? The customers we’ve had in that situation usually have to get the neighbor to agree to split the cost of separating the lines, incur the expense themselves, or leave it as is.
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  • Drew M.
    Professional · Santa Barbara, CA · Member since 2016 · 42 posts · 27 votes
    8y

    How much time and money are you looking to spend in litigation?  Sounds like both houses have been there for a long time.  You would have to consult with a local attorney to see what kind of rights the neighbor property may have accrued even if there is not a recorded easement.  But it's most likely going to be a fight.  And if you resort to self-help and disconnect his sewer line and tell him to get lost you will not exactly appear sympathetic in any court action.

    Probably better to explore an amicable resolution IMHO.

    2Reply
  • Steve B.
    Engineer · Portland, OR · Member since 2014 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    8y
    Sounds like you are on a “party line”. If this is the case your not going to arbitrarily be able to kick anyone off the sewer like or come up with your own idea of what’s “fair”. The city will have defied guidelines of who will bear the cost of redoing the sewer line, which is usually contingent on who has the closer connection to the lateral in the streets main line. Be advised that as soon as you notify the city you are on a party line they may force you to pay to redo it and you may bear the vast majority of the costs. I advise you talk to a local sewer excavator who can scope the line and understands your local sewer regulations. That’s a sewer line excavator not your local buttcrack plumber. I’ve just dealt with the same thing in Portland and my cost would have been about 6k but if I notified the city my neighbor who didn’t have the lateral would have paid about 20k
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  • Julie MarquezPro Member
    OP
    Investor · Skagit County, WA · Member since 2016 · 1k+ posts · 807 votes
    8y

    @Drew M. I appreciate the sound advice, I'm a ratio person person but can see that my rash actions could be detrimental in the future - don't want that.

    @Steve B. No "party" here, (sigh), I talk to the City more. When I told them we shared a line, they just groaned and sounded sorry for us but didn't offer much help. I'll ask more specifically now that I see all the goals and sides of the "party."

    Yep, and I know good civil guys to dig and separate plumbing guys to pipe.

    So what was the resolution in your situation?

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  • Julie MarquezPro Member
    OP
    Investor · Skagit County, WA · Member since 2016 · 1k+ posts · 807 votes
    8y

    @Michele G. Good questions, but it's on my PROPERTY!! The cost to separate the line = me pay for my new line & him pay for his new line? And we all abandon the old orangeberg line.

    1Reply
  • Steve B.
    Engineer · Portland, OR · Member since 2014 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    8y

    @Julie Marquez I just gave the home buyer a 8k concession because the sewer line failed.  Because of the drop it will likely never give him a problem but it was still a failed line.  So he will either just pocket the savings and not worry about it or use the concession to fix the line.  However as soon As the buyer notifies the city for the sewer line permit my former neighbor is gonna get a nice letter from the city demanding she get her own sewer line which will cost her about 20k.  I’m sure she will love that little surprise 

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  • Seth Borman
    Rental Property Investor · Phoenix, AZ · Member since 2016 · 553 posts · 314 votes
    8y
    I don't understand the problem. So what if the line is on your property? Everyone I know that has done a side sewer has paid around $10,000 exclusive of impact fees. That is each, although I would expect a discount from a contractor that did both at once. I would file this under the heading of "borrowing trouble" and not replace it until it fails.
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  • JD MartinBusiness Member
    Moderator
    Rock Star Extraordinaire · Northeast, TN · Member since 2015 · 10k+ posts · 17k+ votes
    8y

    Generally anything that is on your property, outside of specified easements and right-of-ways that go with the property, is your property. Some of this is state-specific, and there are such things as "prescribed" easements, where it becomes one de facto because it's been there so long, but beyond that, running a utility system I can recount a number of times where this has been an issue, and the property owner dug up the connection at the property line, capped it, and told the neighbor to pound sand. Usually it's happened when the property owners got into a dispute about something else, and the other owner essentially said "I'll show you". 

    If it were me, I would give the neighboring property owner the opportunity to share in the cost of replacing the entire section, if that's your goal, and if they refuse, I would probably look into getting their section off my property. 

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  • Michele G.
    Ann Arbor, MI · Member since 2017 · 109 posts · 52 votes
    8y
    Julie Marquez In the situations we’ve dealt with here - regardless of whose property the line is on, the cities have made the neighbors work together on a solution. The cities do not allow a property owner to disconnect a neighbor from the sewer line simply because the line is on their property. If the city wasn’t a lot of help to you my guess would be they take the same approach and will make you guys work it out. My big concern is that you have orangeburg. I would get a pipeline inspection done to verify the condition of the line. When orangeburg starts to fail you will only end up with more backups and the more you clean the line the more damage you do to the pipe. It’s a delicate situation. You want to get your neighbor on your side and agree to split the cost. As it is right now he doesn’t have a problem with the existing setup, but your cottage is backing up in the meantime.
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  • Julie MarquezPro Member
    OP
    Investor · Skagit County, WA · Member since 2016 · 1k+ posts · 807 votes
    8y

    @Seth Borman Right now the clog is only affecting my cottage, so hopefully I don't need to replace the whole thing and he gets the benefit too.

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  • Julie MarquezPro Member
    OP
    Investor · Skagit County, WA · Member since 2016 · 1k+ posts · 807 votes
    8y

    @jd martin I guess there is more to look into, this is a 1929 pipe so there could be some grandfather issues. I hope it never turns into a go pound sand issue, but I can say I'd rather not share anything with the neighbor. We will see what he says...

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  • Julie MarquezPro Member
    OP
    Investor · Skagit County, WA · Member since 2016 · 1k+ posts · 807 votes
    8y

    @Michele G.It is orangeburg pipe, or something from 1929. The City said there is a sewer main on the other side of the house (away from the neighbor) with a cleanout and we can hookup there for the small price of a free ROW permit and a $27 plumbing permit. Then we can leave the neighbor and he is left with an orangeburg pipe that lies on our property. Then if he had to replace the orangeburg, could we force him to take his new line off our property?

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  • Michele G.
    Ann Arbor, MI · Member since 2017 · 109 posts · 52 votes
    8y
    I’m glad you found a solution. Here, orangeburg wasn’t installed until the early ‘50’s, but my husband just found orangeburg at a 100 year old house that had apparently replaced the sewer line sometime in the ‘50s or ‘60s. Yes you could force your neighbor to move his line if he ever had to replace the line. That’s not cheap and you may end up creating a hostile relationship next door. Is there a reason you need to separate the lines? That’s typically not cheap especially if you’re going into the road to connect to the city trunk line. Unless the backups are the neighbor’s fault and/or they were being a pain and refusing to pay for a portion of the bills then I probably wouldn’t incur the cost just to separate them. That would be a $15,000-20,000 job around here depending on how far into the road we have to go to tap into the city sewer.
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  • Julie MarquezPro Member
    OP
    Investor · Skagit County, WA · Member since 2016 · 1k+ posts · 807 votes
    8y

    @Michele G. The bad neighbor issues you describe are exactly what I am worried about. :( I just rather not have to deal with him any more than I have to. I think I'll just have to prepare for the peace of mind (and price) that comes with my own lines.

    1Reply
  • Jesse Aizenstat
    Developer · Santa Barbara, CA · Member since 2019 · 10 posts · 2 votes
    5y

    Julie, I ran into a similar issue in Santa Barbara. I actually started a software to handle sewer lateral inspection programs to basically handle stuff like this. It starts with getting a plumber to find/map the lines, then figure out what the municipal code is (do they mandate fixing, etc). You'll be fine with the shared line if it's working correctly. But that being said, start with knowing the condition and a jetting can go a long way. (Google goforwardlateral.com and get the plumber to give you a report. Email me. I'll make it free.) Kevin Pillars to Posts does good ones in WA. 

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  • Julie MarquezPro Member
    OP
    Investor · Skagit County, WA · Member since 2016 · 1k+ posts · 807 votes
    5y

    @Jesse Aizenstat That's so interesting! And so handy for people to be armed with this information

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