Hi,
We live in an old house with a small garden in an old, built up area. We have a new neighbour on the north, uphill side. The south wall of this house sits right on the boundary of our property, from front to back, and all the gutters run along the top of this wall. The gutters fall to the rear of his property where they discharge into a drain in the normal way. There is no fence along the boundary, just the 3 - 3.5m wall. Our front door and verandah faces this wall and I have an established garden 4m deep here.
The new neighbour seems to be moving his utilities around and he now wants to run downpipes down and along the wall on our side (where they have never been before), and back to the rear of his property, where he'll take the pipe through the wall and to the drain. This means that he will be placing pipes to carry his roof runoff either across the wall or along the base of the wall - in my garden. It won't be pretty, which I can put up with. There might be a small encroachment, which doesn't concern me in this case. However, I'm thinking long-term and I don't want to permit an easement. There will be no possible way he'll be able to maintain or replace his guttering without climbing about in my garden, and if I put in a structure near the wall it would block his access.
It's worth noting that part of his roof is overhung by a few trees including a jacaranda (ours). He's got good gutter mesh but can probably still expect to have to maintain his stormwater pipes at some time.
He has already run pipes for gas and hot water along part of the wall. I didn't think of the issue of easement when he did this - I was thinking in terms of "that's his wall, he can do what he likes with it", and I do want to oblige him. But the previous owners didn't need access for maintenance, so this is a significant change that he's setting up.
My question is, by agreeing to allow him to pipe the rain runoff from his roof along the base of the wall in my garden, am I setting up an implied easement as his stormwater will only be accessible from within my property? What are the implications of this? Have I already agreed to this by allowing the gas and hot water pipes to go on my side of the wall?
Any advice or information gratefully received.
We live in an old house with a small garden in an old, built up area. We have a new neighbour on the north, uphill side. The south wall of this house sits right on the boundary of our property, from front to back, and all the gutters run along the top of this wall. The gutters fall to the rear of his property where they discharge into a drain in the normal way. There is no fence along the boundary, just the 3 - 3.5m wall. Our front door and verandah faces this wall and I have an established garden 4m deep here.
The new neighbour seems to be moving his utilities around and he now wants to run downpipes down and along the wall on our side (where they have never been before), and back to the rear of his property, where he'll take the pipe through the wall and to the drain. This means that he will be placing pipes to carry his roof runoff either across the wall or along the base of the wall - in my garden. It won't be pretty, which I can put up with. There might be a small encroachment, which doesn't concern me in this case. However, I'm thinking long-term and I don't want to permit an easement. There will be no possible way he'll be able to maintain or replace his guttering without climbing about in my garden, and if I put in a structure near the wall it would block his access.
It's worth noting that part of his roof is overhung by a few trees including a jacaranda (ours). He's got good gutter mesh but can probably still expect to have to maintain his stormwater pipes at some time.
He has already run pipes for gas and hot water along part of the wall. I didn't think of the issue of easement when he did this - I was thinking in terms of "that's his wall, he can do what he likes with it", and I do want to oblige him. But the previous owners didn't need access for maintenance, so this is a significant change that he's setting up.
My question is, by agreeing to allow him to pipe the rain runoff from his roof along the base of the wall in my garden, am I setting up an implied easement as his stormwater will only be accessible from within my property? What are the implications of this? Have I already agreed to this by allowing the gas and hot water pipes to go on my side of the wall?
Any advice or information gratefully received.
Last edited:
