My husband and I are about to purchase a new home and have learned (a week before closing) that the mound and small cap marked "water" located in the backyard is that of an Active Main Water Main for the City and not a well or something not used etc. There is an easement for utility and drainage of 30' from the rear of the property and 5ha' on all other sides... the City tells us if there is ever a need they may tear everything up in our back yard if necessary ... trees, decks, small sheds, etc. and are not responsible to replace them... 30' in from the rear of the property leaves little elbow room to expand a deck or put up a hobby shed etc without a concern of "if" something happens we would be out a lot...
As we know nothing of the potential for work or repair etc that the City would do... can you advise us of what could happen or if there is any need for concern? Also... can we utilize the yard and build on top of it? We were hoping to put a 10x12 shed on it with electricity but have no idea if that is now possible...
Any info you can provide is much appreciated as we are to close in a week on it, have sold our current home and would have no place to live if we were to walk away from this... Thank You !!!

If you ignore the water main and still like the house for all the other reasons you wanted to buy it initially, then I wouldn't let it stop you. I would spend some time on the phone with the water department directly and ask to speak to a supervisor about the mains in your area. You can find out if there have been problems close by in the past, or in your yard specifically, If the mains have been replaced in the last 20 years, I wouldn't be too concerned, but if there have been breaks around the area and the line is 50 years old.. well, I wouldn't risk building on it. If you want to build a shed, build the floor with large structural timbers with a method to attach a heavy chain or cable and the ends of the timbers cut at 45 degree angles so that if you need to, a backhoe can pull it out of the way and the timbers will act like sled runners.

this happened 2 days ago in brocton, MA.

[www.wcvb.com]

If it's a utility easement then there may be more parties involved besides the city. You may have the power company, telephone, internet service providers, cable TV, gas company, all may have buried lines under there and any one of them can require access to the easement area.

USUALLY, they will not just tear out your backyard without any warning or regards, they will work with you and limit damages if the work order is of a non-emergency nature.

But if it's a main break and it happens on a Saturday and you are out on vacation and they can't get to it they absolutely can do what they said.

Heck the fire department, can knock down your fences in order to rescue your neighbor's houses on fire.

Most of the time, they city's building department will not grant a permit for you to build anything of a permanent nature within the easement areas anyway, precisely for the reason you mentioned. So I would first check with the city's building department, as usually any sort of construction you have to submit a current survey, which will show your planned activities will encroach on the easement. If they won't even let you build, then it's a moot point.

Down here where I am, if you even want to put a temporary shed inside the easement you have to get a variance. Most times I have seen people get variances are putting up temp sheds, or a fence, or above ground pools. If you go ahead and build a deck in the back without permits, I know where I live if they ever need to access it, not only they will tear down your deck if they have an emergency, then they will fine you double for building without permit, then they will charge you money to tear down your deck, money they didn't have to spend if your deck wasn't there. Kind of like you cost them extra time and money to make their necessary repairs and upgrades.



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Thanks so much for the advice... We have had a chance to talk to one of our potential neighbors who is a builder and said there has been no trouble in the past 16-20 years and didn't think it would be a problem. That being said, we measured the 30' utility and drainage easement and it would come to half of our backyard leavieng us barely enough room to build the deck we want but nothing else. We are also working with the City Water people to see how far the water pipe/line goes down as we want to fix and level the mound that covers it up... thanks again

Thank you! Yes we love the house and are working through how to work around it... Thanks again

OMG !!!!!

All very good to know !!! Thanks so much for sharing !!!



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