Sydney Water forces teacher to pay $11k bill for pipe fix - The Daily Telegraph

SYDNEY property owners are being forced to pay thousands of dollars to repair broken water and sewage pipes under public roads.

The Sunday Telegraph has discovered that about 10 per cent of owners have sewerage connection points outside their property boundary, which leaves them liable for costs to Sydney Water.

Teacher Bill Manthopoulos said his life was turned upside down when he had to pay $11,000 to repair a pipe that a contractor broke while laying cabling under a Sydney City Council road in Rosebery.

The break left raw sewage running out of his boundary trap on to the footpath.

Not only did he have to pay the cash to three different plumbers, he was threatened with a $20,000 fine and forced out of his house with a four-month-old baby after a sewer pipe collapsed in the middle of the street. Because the pipes are outside the property, repairs are also not covered by home insurance.

Sydney City Council threatened to fine him $20,000 if the problem was not fixed within 21 days because it was an "environmental hazard".

"We could not believe that we would be responsible for a pipe broken outside of our property boundary," Mr Manthopoulos said. "I can't even park my car in front of my house, so how is it my pipe?"

Master Plumbers Association CEO Paul Naylor called for an urgent review of Sydney Water contracts that forced customers to pay for repairs outside their property boundary.

"That is the asset belonging to Sydney Water - so why is Sydney Water not responsible for it," he said. "They argue that under the customer service contract the owner is responsible for the sewerage line to the point of connection."

Mr Naylor said he would be seeking talks with state Finance Minister Greg Pearce because his office received up to six calls a month from distressed property owners facing enormous bills.

Sydney Water, which had a $2.7 billion income in the 2011-12 financial year and assets valued at $14 billion, said the customer contract stated the property owner was responsible for the private sewerage service up to the point of connection with Sydney Water's main.

Sydney City councillor Angela Vithoulkas said residents could not be expected to pay for public infrastructure.

"How do we expect civilians to dig up council roads to a degree that satisfies us," Cr Vithoulkas said. "They are repairing Sydney Water infrastructure."