House buyers should be hiring plumbers and drain layers to inspect pipes as they do builders to complete building reports when considering buying property.
Just like a building report should protect you from buying a leaky house a plumbing report should protect you from taking on leaky or broken pipes on the property.
This advice becomes more applicable every year in New Zealand with a quarter of piping now more than 50 years old and in need of renewal. Like anything over time the pipes that carry drinking water, wastewater and stormwater degrade and require either maintenance or replacement.
Many Kiwi homeowners are oblivious that sewer and stormwater pipes on private property are their responsibility to maintain.
Recently a Wellington woman made the news when she had to pay $22,000 to repair a wastewater pipe outside her boundary that connected her house to the council main.
Under the Local Government Act the typical situations are:
Technically, all councils can legally force homeowners to repair private wastewater and stormwater pipes right up to the council main, but some councils choose to bear the cost.
House buyers need to ask the council in their area its policy on who covers the cost of repairs that extend beyond a property boundary. But they should also be aware councils could change this policy at any stage as Wellington City did in 2005 “gifting” the city’s lateral pipes back to homeowners.
Water New Zealand advocates anyone considering buying a home should employ a plumber to do a drainage report on the condition of wastewater and stormwater pipes, from the house boundary to where it joins the public network.
You might just be avoiding a very large and unexpected bill.
To understand better what happens when you flush and your responsibilities as a homeowner Gisborne District Council has a great video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSGqdG59XTU