Sydney Water or plumber: who fixes what?

In Sydney, the property owner is responsible for almost every pipe on their land. Under Sydney Water's Customer Contract, you own your water pipes and your sewer pipes from the point where they connect to Sydney Water's system, and that connection can sit beyond your front boundary. Sydney Water owns and maintains the water meter and the mains in the street. So a leak or blockage on your side is usually a job for your plumber, and one in the street is Sydney Water's.

The details matter, because a few parts catch people out: the meter tap, the sewer junction and shared lines. Here is how responsibility splits for houses and strata buildings in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs, with examples from jobs our team has attended.

Your water supply: from the main to your taps

Sydney Water's Customer Contract makes the owner responsible for the water pipes from the connection point on Sydney Water's system through to the buildings and taps. The water meter is the exception. It stays Sydney Water's property and they maintain it, but the pipework on either side of the meter is yours.

There is one courtesy repair worth knowing about. Sydney Water may, at its discretion, repair a leak on the pipe between its main and the meter at no cost, where the fault is up to one lineal metre inside your property boundary. Faults further in, pipes over 40mm, fire services and backflow devices are excluded. Sydney Water backfills the hole but does not put back paving or landscaping.

The meter tap is yours, not Sydney Water's

The tap beside the meter is the main shut-off for the property, and Sydney Water's meter maintenance page is clear that the meter tap is part of the private pipework. Sydney Water will fix some meter taps under certain conditions, so for a slow drip it is worth calling them on 13 20 90 first. When it can't wait, a licensed plumber replaces it at the owner's cost.

On a Maroubra meter tap job, the meter tap itself was leaking, so there was nothing on the property to turn off before the part that needed replacing. We froze a short section of the incoming copper to hold back the mains, replaced the tap, and raised the meter out of the garden bed it had been buried in. Further along the same kind of service, a burst water pipe in Maroubra showed up as water coming through the pavers in dry weather. That was old copper on the private side, so it was the owner's repair.

Your sewer: who owns the junction?

The same rule applies to wastewater. The owner owns the sewer pipes "to and including the connection point" with Sydney Water's system, which may be beyond the boundary. Sydney Water owns the junction on its main, but the owner is responsible for their connection into it.

In practice, Sydney Water's guidance for plumbers says roots that enter at the point of connection are the owner's to clear, and root or excavation damage to the junction is at the owner's cost. Sydney Water may replace a damaged junction at no cost but won't pay to dig down to it. Where the dig to a connection point would be deeper than 2.5 metres, Sydney Water takes the repair over.

Two more rules are worth knowing. If several properties share one private line (a private joint service), every owner on it shares responsibility from the connection point. And where a residential private sewer has collapsed under a footpath or road, Sydney Water may repair it for free if a plumber shows it needs excavation. That is at Sydney Water's discretion.

How to tell if a sewer blockage is Sydney Water's

Sydney Water's wastewater blockages page lists the signs the problem is in their pipes rather than yours:

• Sewage overflowing beyond your boundary, such as in the street or footpath.
• Neighbours having the same problem at the same time.
• An overflow that keeps going even when nobody is using water.

If your plumber finds the blockage in Sydney Water's pipe, they should report it on 13 20 90 and get a job number. With that, you can claim back reasonable plumber costs from Sydney Water.

Most overflows we attend are on the private side. In South Coogee, sewage came up out of the yard gully. That gully is designed to sit lower than the drains inside the house, so a blockage surcharges outside instead of through a shower. The cause was roots in the private line, which we jetted and checked on camera.

Stormwater and strata buildings

Stormwater follows the same pattern. Downpipes, pits and lines on your land are yours until they reach the street gutter or the public stormwater system, and owners maintain any connection to Sydney Water's stormwater network. Never connect stormwater to the sewer. Sydney Water can issue a restriction notice for it.

In a strata building, the boundary with Sydney Water works exactly the same way. The difference is on the private side, where costs split between the owners corporation and individual lot owners. Our guide on who pays for a burst pipe in strata covers that split.

Who to call

• Leak or sewage overflow in the street or footpath: Sydney Water on 13 20 90, 24 hours a day.
• Leak or blockage on your property: a licensed plumber.
• Blockage your plumber traces to Sydney Water's pipe: ask them to call it in for a job number before they leave.

How to reach Norton Plumbing

Norton Plumbing has handled leaks, meter taps and sewer blockages across Sydney's Eastern Suburbs since 2019. We operate from 10/11a-15 Berwick Street, Coogee NSW 2034. Phone: 0477 858 951. Adam Norton is the primary technician on every job and holds NSW plumbing licence 397768C. For blockages, see our blocked drains service page, and for hidden leaks on the private side, our leak detection page.