Lawyer: $9400 repair bill for pipe seems quite unfair
A lawyer believes a Wellington homeowner could challenge the city council’s decision not to pay for repairs to a lateral sewer pipe that collapsed outside his boundary.
The issue of responsibility for the pipes was brought to the fore by Khandallah resident Warwick Eves, who was forced to stump up $9476 in traffic management and drainlayer’s fees because Wellington City Council said it was not required to maintain the pipe.
That was despite the fact that roots from a council-owned pohutukawa tree, also outside Eves’ boundary, contributed to the failure of the 50-year-old pipe in October.
About $4000 of the bill was for stop-go traffic management for a single day of roadworks – a cost that councillor Iona Pannett said the council’s chief engineer ‘‘was now looking into’’.
Eves is now seeking advice on the matter.
The council’s policy on lateral pipes – used to transport waste to the public main – is that they are legal ultimately the homeowner’s responsibility.
However, Wellington lawyer Dan Parker said the council might have a case to answer on nuisance grounds.
‘‘On the facts reported, it seems quite unfair for Mr Eves to be expected to meet the costs to address damage to a drain if the damage has occurred outside his boundary, and has been caused by a council-owned tree also situated outside his boundary.’’
Parker said it was important to establish what caused the pipe’s failure. ‘‘If the damage has been caused by the roots of a tree owned by council, then council may have exposure in nuisance and could not expect the adjacent landowner to meet the associated repair costs.’’
Establishing whether the pipe was considered to be public or private would also be crucial. In a 1995 case against Wellington City Council, the Court of Appeal agreed with a High Court’s ruling that a drain passing through private property was a public drain.
It has been almost a year since the council’s environment committee voted to take on the responsibility of maintaining private wastewater pipes beyond homeowners’ property boundaries.
A decision on whether the council will adopt that stance is more than six months away, though, with money proving the sticking point.
Pannett, who chaired the committee, said engineers were assessing the state of the city’s pipes to get a picture of the potential cost to ratepayers.