Grand Designs Australia

[ErrolFlynn]

The TV show featured a house built in Hornsby Heights, a Sydney suburb. It was an old episode with the house going up in 2012 and 2013.

Two things took my attention.

1. The owners and builder were very flexible. They were changing things on the fly. They gave the builder a lot of leeway to do things as he thought best. Doesn’t the Council have a say in such things? If the Council approved the plans shouldn’t you have to stick to those plans? Apparently not.

2. When preparing the land for the foundations they discovered what they termed “an immovable object” I think they described it as. And what was this object? It was a sewer line. It was strange looking. A box-like thing running down the slope of the land. Presumably a pipe was running over the surface that was either bricked over or covered in concrete. Not sure. Presumably, it was easier to run it on the surface due to the rocky terrain. Well, that was a fly in the ointment. So, what did they do, but kept on building. The sewer pipe where it was located ended up running, above floor level, through one of the rooms in the house. They eventually built a solid (rendered concrete) seat over it. Another term for a sewer running through your property is an easement. And aren’t easements things you don’t build over? Apparently not.

[droog]

Doesn’t the Council have a say in such things? If the Council approved the plans shouldn’t you have to stick to those plans?.

Most cases these days it is the private certifier now known as a building surveyor that approve and sign off on the works. Council not involved.

A number of recent news articles of building works approved and signed off that do not align with local rules and requirements and have ended up before the courts after construction.

[ErrolFlynn]

Thanks, Droog. Interesting. But to build a house on top of an easement seems crazy. The only thing I can think of is that it was for one or two houses only, and if a problem developed in the future, the repair/relocation costs would have to be borne by the people who built on top of it.

[r3nov8or]

It's an easement if designated as such on plans for public infrastructure, in my experience anyway. Eg I have an easement for the last 4 metres of my land, which is common infrastructure. But I can't imagine anyone caring about a sewer beyond that defined easement

[droog]

Question would be was it a main connecting other properties or was it just a private sewer pipe connecting services on the block.
Next would be was it a defined easement ? Our sewer connection is to a defined main in the neighbours yard yet there does not appear to be a defined easement.

It is also possible to build over in some cases. Sometimes the requirement is to encase the service to protect it from damage.

[havabeer69]

was it this rendered one? skimmed through the episode and couldn't see anything about in immovable object

[ErrolFlynn]

I think that's how it was described, or if not, words to that effect. There was a quick camera shot of it. It didn't look like anything in particular that I recognised. Actually, I thought it was a lump of rock and didn't peg immediately. I was confused thinking if it's a pipe then surely it would have been placed underground. Then I remembered that there are a lot of rocky areas in Sydney and it might have been easier to run it along the surface or the ground than attempt to locate it underneath. So "rendered" - Well, it didn't look like any pipe I've ever seen. So, I presume it was encased in something to protect it (eg. bricks or concrete). Don't know. I don't think it was mentioned until the house had been completed, and it had been disguised/hidden under a solid bench seat-like arrangement. There was a bit of joking in regard to them sitting on top of a sewer pipe. Weird.