Tree roots in your drain: who pays?

If roots from your own tree damage your drain, the repair is yours, and most home insurance policies exclude root damage. If the tree is on a neighbour's land, NSW law gives you a path: the Land and Environment Court can order the tree's owner to pay for pipe repairs under the Trees (Disputes Between Neighbours) Act 2006. Council street trees fall outside that Act, so you claim through the council instead.

Whichever applies, the claim rests on evidence: where the roots got in, which tree they came from, and what the repair needs. This guide covers each route and what to collect, using root jobs our team has done across the Eastern Suburbs.

Start with where the roots got in

Roots go looking for water, and they usually get in through a fault that is already there: a cracked pipe or a joint that has opened up. The City of Sydney's own fact sheet makes the same point, that roots rarely crack a well-installed, well-maintained pipe. In the Eastern Suburbs, the usual entry point is the joints in old terracotta pipe.

A CCTV camera inspection shows exactly where. On a Mount Street, Coogee dig-up, the camera found roots through three separate joint failures in cracked terracotta after two earlier clears had failed. At a Double Bay strata block, the stormwater line was packed wall to wall with roots about 2.5 metres in. The recording, with the location marked on the ground, becomes the core of any claim.

Location also decides who is responsible. Roots in your private line, or entering at your connection to the sewer main, are the owner's problem. Roots inside Sydney Water's own main are Sydney Water's. Our guide to Sydney Water or plumber: who fixes what explains that boundary.

Your own tree: the repair and your insurance

Roots from a tree on your own property are your repair. Don't expect insurance to cover it. Suncorp, for example, excludes loss arising from the roots of trees, shrubs and plants, and only covers water escaping from a root-damaged pipe under its escape of liquid cover. Several other insurers have similar exclusions, so check the PDS before you lodge anything.

A neighbour's tree: the Land and Environment Court

The Land and Environment Court hears tree disputes between neighbours. It can make orders to remedy damage to property, and its own example is paying for the repair or replacement of sewer pipes badly damaged by tree roots. Some conditions apply:

• You must own or occupy land that adjoins the land the tree is on.
• The tree must be on privately owned land in an urban zone.
• You must have made a reasonable effort to resolve it with your neighbour first. Mediation isn't compulsory, but the Court wants to see you tried.

Applications ask for evidence of the damage and where the tree sits, with arborist or engineer statements where you have them. A plumber's CCTV recording and written report on what failed and why is the plumbing half of that evidence.

A council street tree: claim through the council

The neighbours Act does not cover trees on land owned or managed by a council. For street trees, you deal with the council directly, and each council has its own process. The City of Sydney, for example, accepts claims where council-owned trees caused the damage. It asks owners to get three written quotes and a road-opening permit for any footpath dig, and to notify council so an officer can inspect the exposed pipe. The formal claim then goes to its risk management team, which decides liability.

Councils protect their street trees, so never cut roots from a council tree without permission. Ask your council about its process before any digging near a street tree, because it may want to see the pipe while it is exposed.

What evidence to collect

• The CCTV recording, with the root entry points located and marked on the ground.
• A licensed plumber's written report: what failed, where, and the likely cause.
• Photos of the roots and the damaged pipe once exposed, and of the tree's position.
• An arborist's identification of the tree, if it isn't obvious whose roots they are.
• Written quotes for the repair.

Stopping it happening again

Clearing roots with a jetter gives relief, but the roots grow back through the same open joints. The lasting fixes are replacing the damaged section, as we did on a cracked drain in South Coogee, or pipe relining, which seals the joints from the inside. Sydney Water also advises against planting trees within 6 metres of wastewater pipes.

How to reach Norton Plumbing

Norton Plumbing has cleared, filmed and repaired root-damaged drains 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. See our blocked drains service page for CCTV inspections, and the pipe relining page for sealing joints without digging.