Hi All,
Today I heard from one of the sales consultant, if we build close to easement we need bored concrete piers.
My question is how close to easement we are allowed to build without having to put on the piers.
I have 2m easement at the back on a block of length 32m.
I was under the impression I can build upto 30m without any issues.
If my slab is till 29.9 m, would I still need piers.
Any insight would be helpful.
Thanks
Question about building close to easement!!
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Are you on a sloping block? My understanding was that you only get bored piers if there is a concern regarding the stability of the soil or if there is a lot of fill. We got the piers as we had a lot of fill to contend with. If no fill, then I can't see the need for piers at all and it should have no bearing on your easement. I'm no expert however, and may be completely wrong.
Thanks for your reply. Our block is flat as far as I am aware of.
It might be a council requirement. Have to check with SC again.
It might be a council requirement. Have to check with SC again.
The location and depth of the pipe with in the easement is what determines how close you can build. The slab is not allowed to put weight on the pipe and hence break it or squash it. As a very basic rule of thumb the weight is distributed down and out at 45 degress
So there for if the pipe is 2m deep (to the bottom) you would roughly expect to be allowed to build a regular slab (for your area) 2m away from the pipe.
Don't forget the pipe will probably be in the center of the 2m easement.
Someone previously drew a little sketch in this forum.
So there for if the pipe is 2m deep (to the bottom) you would roughly expect to be allowed to build a regular slab (for your area) 2m away from the pipe.
Don't forget the pipe will probably be in the center of the 2m easement.
Someone previously drew a little sketch in this forum.
Our house comes to within 100mm of the sewer easement and we needed piering along the back for exactly the reason mudmap outlined. Soil stability may be an issue, but it's more a general engineering thing based on proximity to the sewer.
The sewer isn't necessarily in the centre of the easement....ours is closer to the house than the fence.
Ask your builder if it's necessary to pier the entire slab, or just the rear edge. There can be quite a difference in cost. You might find it only adds around $2000-$3000 to site costs, but it can vary a lot from one site to another, and from one builder ot another.
The sewer isn't necessarily in the centre of the easement....ours is closer to the house than the fence.
Ask your builder if it's necessary to pier the entire slab, or just the rear edge. There can be quite a difference in cost. You might find it only adds around $2000-$3000 to site costs, but it can vary a lot from one site to another, and from one builder ot another.
Not sure where you are building but check out this link
http://www.sydneywater.com.au/Publicati ... elines.pdf
also it depends on if the what the easement is for. If its for sewer you will be efeected by zone of influence if its stomwater you can usually build right up to it, depends on the council.
http://www.sydneywater.com.au/Publicati ... elines.pdf
also it depends on if the what the easement is for. If its for sewer you will be efeected by zone of influence if its stomwater you can usually build right up to it, depends on the council.
Thanks guys.
Our house ends 3m from the easement.
Only the alfresco area extends close to the easement.
Our builder puts the same slab to alfresco as the rest the building and hence we might need piers just for the edge of alfresco slab.
Will have to wait and see what they come up with.
Our house ends 3m from the easement.
Only the alfresco area extends close to the easement.
Our builder puts the same slab to alfresco as the rest the building and hence we might need piers just for the edge of alfresco slab.
Will have to wait and see what they come up with.
We have a easement too down one side of our land. Its 4m wide so can we pretty much build right up to it? We are building on stumps would this affect anything?
Hi Mishti,
We have a flat 33m length block with a rear 2 mt easement. Our block is flat and the rear slab finishes 3.2mt from the rear boundry. We have a H-D slab which is pretty standard in the West of Melbourne. We required 5 x bored concrete piers just along the rear of the slab.
Hope this helps
We have a flat 33m length block with a rear 2 mt easement. Our block is flat and the rear slab finishes 3.2mt from the rear boundry. We have a H-D slab which is pretty standard in the West of Melbourne. We required 5 x bored concrete piers just along the rear of the slab.
Hope this helps
Hi everyone,
Just got a copy of our prelim contract by email today, and in one note it refers to:
"Owner to apply for "Report & Consent" from relevant authorities for building over easement. "Report & Consent" to be applied for prior to building permit application. Customer to be aware that this item does not constitute approval, therefore siting is conditional on approval. Owner to apply to local authority to obtain neighbours names and addresses prior to M homes making application".
We have a 1.83m easement along the back which isn't a problem, but also a 1.83m easement along the side, and currently our siting puts the house approx 2.055m from the boundary. So I have a few uncertainties here;
1) Do I have to get all the approvals from Yarra Valley Water and local council? If so, do I have to do this prior to signing the preliminary contract, or can I do it before signing final contracts?
2) Is there any risk that this will be denied (and then throwing off the whole building process?) We don't mind so much if there's a little extra cost in piers or whatever else is structurally required so much.
Just got a copy of our prelim contract by email today, and in one note it refers to:
"Owner to apply for "Report & Consent" from relevant authorities for building over easement. "Report & Consent" to be applied for prior to building permit application. Customer to be aware that this item does not constitute approval, therefore siting is conditional on approval. Owner to apply to local authority to obtain neighbours names and addresses prior to M homes making application".
We have a 1.83m easement along the back which isn't a problem, but also a 1.83m easement along the side, and currently our siting puts the house approx 2.055m from the boundary. So I have a few uncertainties here;
1) Do I have to get all the approvals from Yarra Valley Water and local council? If so, do I have to do this prior to signing the preliminary contract, or can I do it before signing final contracts?
2) Is there any risk that this will be denied (and then throwing off the whole building process?) We don't mind so much if there's a little extra cost in piers or whatever else is structurally required so much.
i think i am in the same position as the op
i've got this on my quote: bore holes to support slab on eastment
eastment is 2 metres from the fence (back), my design is 4 metres from the back (so 2m from eastment, technically)
but i dont understand why i need to pay to support slab on eastment if it's not close to eastment ?
i've got this on my quote: bore holes to support slab on eastment
eastment is 2 metres from the fence (back), my design is 4 metres from the back (so 2m from eastment, technically)
but i dont understand why i need to pay to support slab on eastment if it's not close to eastment ?
Hi everyone,
Just got a copy of our prelim contract by email today, and in one note it refers to:
"Owner to apply for "Report & Consent" from relevant authorities for building over easement. "Report & Consent" to be applied for prior to building permit application. Customer to be aware that this item does not constitute approval, therefore siting is conditional on approval. Owner to apply to local authority to obtain neighbours names and addresses prior to M homes making application".
We have a 1.83m easement along the back which isn't a problem, but also a 1.83m easement along the side, and currently our siting puts the house approx 2.055m from the boundary. So I have a few uncertainties here;
1) Do I have to get all the approvals from Yarra Valley Water and local council? If so, do I have to do this prior to signing the preliminary contract, or can I do it before signing final contracts?
2) Is there any risk that this will be denied (and then throwing off the whole building process?) We don't mind so much if there's a little extra cost in piers or whatever else is structurally required so much.
Just got a copy of our prelim contract by email today, and in one note it refers to:
"Owner to apply for "Report & Consent" from relevant authorities for building over easement. "Report & Consent" to be applied for prior to building permit application. Customer to be aware that this item does not constitute approval, therefore siting is conditional on approval. Owner to apply to local authority to obtain neighbours names and addresses prior to M homes making application".
We have a 1.83m easement along the back which isn't a problem, but also a 1.83m easement along the side, and currently our siting puts the house approx 2.055m from the boundary. So I have a few uncertainties here;
1) Do I have to get all the approvals from Yarra Valley Water and local council? If so, do I have to do this prior to signing the preliminary contract, or can I do it before signing final contracts?
2) Is there any risk that this will be denied (and then throwing off the whole building process?) We don't mind so much if there's a little extra cost in piers or whatever else is structurally required so much.
Hi sklnv,
Which suburb are you building in? How many pipes do you have in your side easement?
We have a plot of land in SE suburb within Monash City. Our land has a 3m wide drainage easement running along the side boundary. Easement has 2 pipes, one belonging to council and one to Yarra Valley Water. We had faced a similar situation (except that we weren't going to build over the easement but near to the easment) and had a previous knockback with council's engineering with a previous design which saw the house sited 50cm from the easement and the builder having to dig into the easement to take some land from there to fill other parts of the site. Engineering disallowed this cos' the council's pipe was rather shallow in the ground and old too. Luckily, we were only at the pre-contract stage (Tender) and could walk away unscathed. With this knowledge (council not approving siting near to the easement), we knew that we had to be at least 1m away from the easement for the next design we could find for our land.
Now, we have signed with another volume builder to build our house. We applied for consent to Yarra Valley Water to build close to the easement (our siting of the house is 1 m away from the easment and their pipe ****** 90 cm from the side boundary). We did this before signing. We were given approval by Yarra Valley and this only took a few days (even though they said it could take up to 2 weeks for processing). You would need to supply Yarra Valley with a copy of your prelim site plans when making your application and a small fee is payable. Since Monash city owned the storm water pipe (the second pipe in our easement), we spoke with the council's engineering dept - brought in all documents (i.e site plan and engineering computations). The engineer gave me the all clear and said I didn't need to make any applications for consent.
You can always start making your enquiries now with Yarra Valley and your city council since it can take time for processing of the applications. With council, they would need to advertise your report and consent application to your neighbours - 14 days advertising period and than some days to make a decision (ours took 2.5 weeks only in total). Even if council indicated to you that there wouldn't be a problem for you to build over the easement, it only takes one neighbour to raise a valid objection for you not to get consent! You could appeal against a rejection of your consent application but this is with another division. (In our case, we were lucky that we got consent for a reduced front setback despite one neighbour objecting. The assistant building inspector said that my neighbour's objection wasn't valid to our application. Neighbour said she was concerned about loss of sunlight to her verandah. For us, the drainage easement and an angled frontage worked to our advantage in order for us to have a reduced front setback! phew)
The other thing you would need to find out is the depth of the pipe(s) in your easement. If they are not very deep, you may get an objection from either the Yarra Valley or the council. The best really is to contact Yarra Valley (for depth and location of their pipe in the easement) and your city council for advice. Yarra Valley in our experience has always given us a prompt reply. They emailed to us the location and invert depth of their water pipe to us. Yarra Valley would also probably tell you to submit an application for consent to them.I can't remember whether we had to pay for this info though. You would probably be able to get all your questions answered by your city council on the day that you pop into their office to speak with someone from Ton & Planning (and engineering if there is a city pipe in your easement too). The one thing that Town & Planning will say to you is that they can't commit to an answer. You just need to persist (gently) with your line of questioning....in order for you get as much information as possible.
Hope this helps.
Hi tc2000, thanks a heaps for your experience!
We're in Box Hill North, under Whitehorse council, redeveloping a block with a very tired weatherboard on it. I think the 6' easement along our side is "an appurtenance for sewerage and drainage" according to the land title in the settlement.
I also contacted Dial Before You Dig month ago, trying to find out what was ****** in the easement - I'm finding it hard to interpret all the drawings and layouts, so I think I'll take your advice and visit the council and hopefully Yarra Valley Water this Tuesday to make heads or tails of it.
It'd be pretty tragic to find our plans disallowed - from what I can tell of our siting, the house is about 20cm away from the easement, but the extended eaves "hang over" the easement, and there would probably be some impact on the easement for the "zone of influence" or whatever term is used. Anyway as we're only at preliminary stage now we've only put $1000 down, so best we investigate asap!
thanks again for your input
T&T
We're in Box Hill North, under Whitehorse council, redeveloping a block with a very tired weatherboard on it. I think the 6' easement along our side is "an appurtenance for sewerage and drainage" according to the land title in the settlement.
I also contacted Dial Before You Dig month ago, trying to find out what was ****** in the easement - I'm finding it hard to interpret all the drawings and layouts, so I think I'll take your advice and visit the council and hopefully Yarra Valley Water this Tuesday to make heads or tails of it.
It'd be pretty tragic to find our plans disallowed - from what I can tell of our siting, the house is about 20cm away from the easement, but the extended eaves "hang over" the easement, and there would probably be some impact on the easement for the "zone of influence" or whatever term is used. Anyway as we're only at preliminary stage now we've only put $1000 down, so best we investigate asap!
thanks again for your input
T&T
Hi tc2000, thanks a heaps for your experience!
We're in Box Hill North, under Whitehorse council, redeveloping a block with a very tired weatherboard on it. I think the 6' easement along our side is "an appurtenance for sewerage and drainage" according to the land title in the settlement.
I also contacted Dial Before You Dig month ago, trying to find out what was ****** in the easement - I'm finding it hard to interpret all the drawings and layouts, so I think I'll take your advice and visit the council and hopefully Yarra Valley Water this Tuesday to make heads or tails of it.
It'd be pretty tragic to find our plans disallowed - from what I can tell of our siting, the house is about 20cm away from the easement, but the extended eaves "hang over" the easement, and there would probably be some impact on the easement for the "zone of influence" or whatever term is used. Anyway as we're only at preliminary stage now we've only put $1000 down, so best we investigate asap!
thanks again for your input
Hi there slknv,
Not a problem...after what we went through with our easement and knockbacks, I thought it would be a good idea to share my experience. By going straight to the owners of the pipes and making your enquiries, it will help you a whole lot and you'll run round less in circles.I take it your prelim contract shows that you require dispensation (report and consent). So when you go down to your city council, pop into Engineering first (to ask for more details of the pipe - you would probably have to fill out some application form <our council calls it a "Point of Discharge" application> and pay a fee <we paid $35> to obtain the information in "writing". It may take your council a couple of weeks to send you the information but there's no harm also talking personally to the city engineer in charge of your area. He/she may even be nice enough to provide you with a cross-sectional diagram of the pipes in your easement (assuming there is a council pipe within your easement).
And than since you're at city council offices, you may wish to pop into Town & Planning (Building division) and ask what needs to be done for your report and consent application.
I hope that the pipe(s) is/are located deep in your easement. Yarra Valley's pipes are normally quite deep (more than 2 metres in some cases). If building over the easement is required, they would give advice on how this should be done (this is provided in their consent letter after you have filed an application of consent). We called Yarra Valley's customer contact centre (Generals and Faults team) and they emailed us a screen shot of the sewer assets in our easement.
If your house is still 20cm from the easement, chances are you may end up having a retainer wall along the length of the easement (depth of retainer wall in the ground depending on fall of your land, angle of repose etc). Our house is 1.4m away from the easement and we have a retainer wall measuring the entire length of the house (21m) along the easement boundary!!!!!!! (We are building with D Family H). We're not doubting the need for it since PD also quoted us a retainer wall (before the project was abandoned) and M3tric*n also said that we would need a retainer wall along the easement. So 3 house designs with 3 different widths, D Family H's design being the furthest away, and in all 3 scenarios, retainer wall required (but we do have a fall of 1.2m across the building envelope too)....
You should also check with your builder whether they would need to cut into the easement to take some land from therein for their cut and fill. When we were originally going with PD, they sited the house design 40cm from the easement but said that they would need to dig into the easement another 50cm for the site cut and subsequent fill. It is common that a 1m sideage from the house design width is required for site cut purposes. As I mentioned in my earlier post, our city council's engineering said no cos' their pipe was only 90 cm deep into the ground (offset from property boundary 1.83m) and the pipe was quite old (almost 50 years old).
GOOD LUCK with your next steps! I hope all turns out well for you!
&T
We're in Box Hill North, under Whitehorse council, redeveloping a block with a very tired weatherboard on it. I think the 6' easement along our side is "an appurtenance for sewerage and drainage" according to the land title in the settlement.
I also contacted Dial Before You Dig month ago, trying to find out what was ****** in the easement - I'm finding it hard to interpret all the drawings and layouts, so I think I'll take your advice and visit the council and hopefully Yarra Valley Water this Tuesday to make heads or tails of it.
It'd be pretty tragic to find our plans disallowed - from what I can tell of our siting, the house is about 20cm away from the easement, but the extended eaves "hang over" the easement, and there would probably be some impact on the easement for the "zone of influence" or whatever term is used. Anyway as we're only at preliminary stage now we've only put $1000 down, so best we investigate asap!
thanks again for your input
Hi there slknv,
Not a problem...after what we went through with our easement and knockbacks, I thought it would be a good idea to share my experience. By going straight to the owners of the pipes and making your enquiries, it will help you a whole lot and you'll run round less in circles.I take it your prelim contract shows that you require dispensation (report and consent). So when you go down to your city council, pop into Engineering first (to ask for more details of the pipe - you would probably have to fill out some application form <our council calls it a "Point of Discharge" application> and pay a fee <we paid $35> to obtain the information in "writing". It may take your council a couple of weeks to send you the information but there's no harm also talking personally to the city engineer in charge of your area. He/she may even be nice enough to provide you with a cross-sectional diagram of the pipes in your easement (assuming there is a council pipe within your easement).
And than since you're at city council offices, you may wish to pop into Town & Planning (Building division) and ask what needs to be done for your report and consent application.
I hope that the pipe(s) is/are located deep in your easement. Yarra Valley's pipes are normally quite deep (more than 2 metres in some cases). If building over the easement is required, they would give advice on how this should be done (this is provided in their consent letter after you have filed an application of consent). We called Yarra Valley's customer contact centre (Generals and Faults team) and they emailed us a screen shot of the sewer assets in our easement.
If your house is still 20cm from the easement, chances are you may end up having a retainer wall along the length of the easement (depth of retainer wall in the ground depending on fall of your land, angle of repose etc). Our house is 1.4m away from the easement and we have a retainer wall measuring the entire length of the house (21m) along the easement boundary!!!!!!! (We are building with D Family H). We're not doubting the need for it since PD also quoted us a retainer wall (before the project was abandoned) and M3tric*n also said that we would need a retainer wall along the easement. So 3 house designs with 3 different widths, D Family H's design being the furthest away, and in all 3 scenarios, retainer wall required (but we do have a fall of 1.2m across the building envelope too)....
You should also check with your builder whether they would need to cut into the easement to take some land from therein for their cut and fill. When we were originally going with PD, they sited the house design 40cm from the easement but said that they would need to dig into the easement another 50cm for the site cut and subsequent fill. It is common that a 1m sideage from the house design width is required for site cut purposes. As I mentioned in my earlier post, our city council's engineering said no cos' their pipe was only 90 cm deep into the ground (offset from property boundary 1.83m) and the pipe was quite old (almost 50 years old).
GOOD LUCK with your next steps! I hope all turns out well for you!
&T
Thanks TC2000 - I called up the council today, and the very helpful lady in engineering called me back later that day - apparently our side easement has.... nothing in it! No stormwater pipe, no this, no that. She said I'd still have to apply for R&C to build over the easement (as the eaves overhang it) and get the sewer/water pipe layout from Yarra Valley Water.
So I called YVW after that, and they said I only had the sewer pipe along the rear easement, but nothing in the side easement either!
So it's looking good so far *touch wood*, we're meeting with M tomorrow morning to go through the preliminary contract.
The only other hangup I have now is that M wants us to remove the fence adjoining the future garage wall as it's within 150mm of the boundary - I wonder if I can get around that at all, as I'm not sure the owners of the rental property next door will want the fence touched. If the easement on the other side isn't an issue, might see if we can shift the house a few cm over so they can build everything with the existing fences intact!
thanks again for your help - I was actually surprised at how helpful both YVW and whitehorse council were!
T&T
So I called YVW after that, and they said I only had the sewer pipe along the rear easement, but nothing in the side easement either!
So it's looking good so far *touch wood*, we're meeting with M tomorrow morning to go through the preliminary contract.
The only other hangup I have now is that M wants us to remove the fence adjoining the future garage wall as it's within 150mm of the boundary - I wonder if I can get around that at all, as I'm not sure the owners of the rental property next door will want the fence touched. If the easement on the other side isn't an issue, might see if we can shift the house a few cm over so they can build everything with the existing fences intact!
thanks again for your help - I was actually surprised at how helpful both YVW and whitehorse council were!
T&T
Thanks TC2000 - I called up the council today, and the very helpful lady in engineering called me back later that day - apparently our side easement has.... nothing in it! No stormwater pipe, no this, no that. She said I'd still have to apply for R&C to build over the easement (as the eaves overhang it) and get the sewer/water pipe layout from Yarra Valley Water.
So I called YVW after that, and they said I only had the sewer pipe along the rear easement, but nothing in the side easement either!
So it's looking good so far *touch wood*, we're meeting with M tomorrow morning to go through the preliminary contract.
The only other hangup I have now is that M wants us to remove the fence adjoining the future garage wall as it's within 150mm of the boundary - I wonder if I can get around that at all, as I'm not sure the owners of the rental property next door will want the fence touched. If the easement on the other side isn't an issue, might see if we can shift the house a few cm over so they can build everything with the existing fences intact!
thanks again for your help - I was actually surprised at how helpful both YVW and whitehorse council were!
T&T
So I called YVW after that, and they said I only had the sewer pipe along the rear easement, but nothing in the side easement either!
So it's looking good so far *touch wood*, we're meeting with M tomorrow morning to go through the preliminary contract.
The only other hangup I have now is that M wants us to remove the fence adjoining the future garage wall as it's within 150mm of the boundary - I wonder if I can get around that at all, as I'm not sure the owners of the rental property next door will want the fence touched. If the easement on the other side isn't an issue, might see if we can shift the house a few cm over so they can build everything with the existing fences intact!
thanks again for your help - I was actually surprised at how helpful both YVW and whitehorse council were!
T&T
Hi there slknv,
GREAT news that there's nothing in the easement at all!!!!!
BTW, if you want to move your design more than 150mm from the side boundary, you would end up having to put in dispensation for a reduced side setback under Regulation 414 of the Building Regulations! A house built on or within 150mm from the side boundary is considered as building on the boundary (Regulation 415).
Siting your house more than 150mm from the boundary puts you in the side setback requirement of 1000mm (or 1 metre) from the side. So, if you want to be more than 150mm but less than 1000mm, you would need to make an application to your council for consent to have your side setback reduced.
Is there any way for you to get in touch with the owners of the rental property next door to you?
ciao,
tc2000
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Thanks - yea sounds like I need to submit build over easement application....ugh guess I better start finding someone who can do the engineering drawings