Does my neighbour have to grant a wayleave?

G

Good2Go

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Hi all, hoping to get some clarity. We bought a house that was built on a garden site. The original site owner still lives next door. At the time of building they didn't put a separate waste water pipe in as it was a family member living in the house.

Fast forward and now the neighbour wants me to get my own connection to the sewerage pipe. It wasn't disclosed by the vendor when selling the house that there was a shared connection. I don't have a manhole/access point to this waste pipe on my side so if there were any blockages would need to access neighbours property.

Is the neighbour obliged to provide a wayleave for this? Is this covered under the Land and Conveyancing Law reform act 2009?

Any insight from a legal or past experience perspective greatly appreciated.
 
I'm not sure the advice so far is any help. Just trying to visualise it here. Are you saying your wastewater drain leaves your premises, enters your neighbour's (presumably) back yard where it joins the wastewater pipe leaving their house and then continues to the public road?

Also:
1. What reason did your neighbour give for wanting you to change the connection setup? At first glance, my feeling is that they should have changed the setup prior to selling but decided to chance sticking you with the bill after you purchased.
2. Has there been any drain issues so far-Backing up? Overflows? Odour?
 
Good2Go said:
Any insight from a legal or past experience perspective greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

The family home I grew up in was one of those bog-standard 1960ies semi-detached houses you see all over Ireland. There was just one soil pipe connected to the public system. It ran from the next door neighbours straight under our back garden, connected to ours, turned the corner of the house, then out under our side and front garden, then connected to the public system.
Any blockages they caused (I can remember their kids using too much TP in one occasion) became our problem. Any blockages we caused didn’t affect them.
I remember them causing a blockage on St Stephens Night!
Anyway, issues were resolved together. There was a good relationship.
Then about 10 or 15 years ago they were having some work done and put in their own soil pipe.
 
The last house I owned had a similar issue. There had been a house on a one-acre site. The owners split the site in two, built a house on the other site, and sold it. Alas, waste pipes (shower, dishwasher, rainwater guttering) ran out from their property, under my front lawn, through the hedge at my front, and into a roadside drain (aka dyke) via a visible pipe.
The engineer that I hired to survey the property discovered this and noted it. Said it could be a problem. As we had our hearts set on the property and the price was very appealing we turned a blind eye to the issue.

We sold that house two years ago and during a meeting with our solicitor, in an off-the-cuff comment I mentioned this issue.
My solicitor raised her hand and said, “I didn’t hear that. Now that I’ve heard that, I’ll have to reveal it to the new buyers. This could be a problem. Send me an email when you get home to remind me”. I forgot to send that email.

The new buyer dragged his feet for a long time on a number of matters and refused to have the house surveyed. Said he’d an eye for these things and the house was sound.
 
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