Shared sewer line

[nocloset]

I live in Washington state. My home was built in 1987, and my sewer line was tied into the neighbors existing line, which goes out to the street in front of their house.

They recently have had a problem with the drains backing up into their basement, and it is attributed to roots from their tree blocking the sewer line.

I am having no backup problems in my house.

What is my obligation to contribute to the repair of the sewer line?

 

[drewguy]

I live in Washington state. My home was built in 1987, and my sewer line was tied into the neighbors existing line, which goes out to the street in front of their house.

They recently have had a problem with the drains backing up into their basement, and it is attributed to roots from their tree blocking the sewer line.

I am having no backup problems in my house.

What is my obligation to contribute to the repair of the sewer line?

Is there any sort of maintenance agreement or easement regarding the line? In other words, do you have a recorded right to use their line? If you do not, then I would either insist that you get one as part of any contribution or play nice so that they don't cut off your use.

Are the tree roots upstream of where your line joins theirs? In other words, is hte problem in their part? Or is it in the shared part? If it's on their part, then it's their problem. If it's on teh shared part, then it could become your problem. In addition, if there's a recorded right to use the shared portion but no maintenance allocation specified, you are likely to be required to split the cost if it ever got to court. State laws vary, as do judges, but in the absence of specific terms otherwise, a judge would likely say if you share the line you share the cost of maintenance.

 

[FarmerJ]

Is the blockage BEFORE or AFTER the line from your home connects to the line going to the street? It really depends on where your line connects , If you know for sure say the neighbor had 100 ft of line from the basement to the actual Y or T that connects you both to the last footage of line and the tree is inbetween the T or Y then you could argue that your not responsible for any part of the back up. but you must be positive about where the T or Y is. SO before you tell them NO do some research first. What you want to learn from your city/county is back in 1987 were shared sewer lines really permitted ? if your city has a ord saying NO then you can learn its starting date, Second thing to learn is under what situations would you be required to have your own line and own tap all the way out to the main line the city owns? BTW if your home was built in 1987 when was the neighbors house built? I have a hard time seeing plastic PVC lines failing the way older iron cast pipe does, unless the line has become cracked OR had joints that were poorly done. Ill guess there never was any kind of maint agreement recorded regarding the line either ?