Hydraulic & Civil Works Sydney

A commercial stormwater easement is a legally designated area on your property title reserved for managing stormwater runoff. It grants the council or a downstream lot owner the right to access this corridor for drainage purposes. Within the easement you cannot erect permanent structures, significantly modify ground levels or obstruct the flow path without council consent. The easement runs with the land, so it binds every future owner. On the positive side, a compliant and well-maintained easement protects your building from upstream flooding and reduces your liability if a drainage failure damages a neighbouring property.

Building over a stormwater easement is generally prohibited without formal council consent. In some circumstances councils permit pavement, car parking or lightweight structures over buried pipes, provided the structural loads are within approved limits and access for maintenance is maintained. Any modification requires a development application or, at minimum, a works-in-kind approval, supported by engineering drawings. Our team designs compliant structures over easements where the council will permit them, and prepares the technical documentation needed for the approval application. Proceeding without consent risks council orders to demolish the work at your cost.

Responsibility is typically shared between the property owner or body corporate and the council. The property owner is responsible for keeping the easement corridor clear of obstructions, maintaining surface drainage features and carrying out minor repairs to private drainage assets within the easement. The council maintains principal drainage lines that it owns within the easement. In a strata commercial building, the body corporate is generally responsible for common property drainage including shared easements. The easement deed and the council's development consent conditions set out the specific division of responsibility for your site.

Maintain a drainage compliance file covering: the registered easement documents from your property title and survey plan; all council correspondence relating to the easement; the original engineering drawings and hydraulic calculations; development consent conditions that reference stormwater management; inspection and maintenance records, including CCTV reports; contractor invoices for all drainage works; any modification approvals or council sign-off letters; and photographs documenting easement condition at regular intervals. This documentation demonstrates compliance to purchasers, insurers, councils and courts. EKORP provides written records for every maintenance and inspection visit, formatted to sit in your compliance file alongside the title documents.

Emergency arrival times depend on location, traffic and plumber availability. We will give you an estimated arrival window when you call. In practice, arrival time depends on where our nearest available plumber is positioned and what other jobs are in progress. We give you a realistic arrival estimate when you ring, not a number we cannot back up. After-hours rates apply for evening, weekend and public holiday call-outs, and we confirm those before dispatching. Call 02 8667 5354 any time.