Huge 34' sanitary sewer easement halts our dig. Advice appreciated.

[MUPPPP]

We were supposed to start digging next week and it has been discovered that we have a 34' sanitary sewer easement on our property. (How we are this far along and are just now discovering this is a tad frustrating). The easement does go through the pool itself and the sewer line is about 10' behind the easement line and goes under the 3-4' retaining wall and a bit of the elevated area labeled "planter space" (see pic 4). On the far side of the sewer line the easement extends about 24' to the edge of our property (see 3rd pic). Somehow the PB had already received the city building permits and here are our options:

1) Screw it, build it--we've got the permits (picture 4). I've read that there will almost assuredly never be a need for anyone to access that portion of the sewer for any reason. The subdivision has been completely built out and sanitary sewer lines almost never need to be accessed for anything. Even if it did need to be accessed, the sewer line itself only goes under the retaining wall and elevated planter space (but that retaining wall is reportedly structural according to PB, but I don't understand the implications of this as far as integrity of my pool is concerned if disturbed). And there is about 24' of easement space on the far side of the sewer line that they could use to access if they ever needed. This could also present a problem should we ever sell the home. I'm surprised the PB said its up to us if we want to risk this.

2) Make minor adjustments, moving the pool a bit closer to the deck so that none of the sewer line itself goes through any portion of the proposed project, but the easement line still goes through the deck. If the sewer line itself is not under anything and they have so much easement room to work with on the other side, I would think we would be safe if the sewer line ever needed accessed? Do they really need all 34' of easement to work on a 6 or 8 inch diameter sanitary sewer pipe?

3) Adjust our pool to something like my attached crude sketch (picture 1). Making the shallow end extend further towards the house and making the 8' deep end more narrow (14'? 16'?). We will have a narrow walkway between the far end of the pool and the retaining wall, and this will also move the pool closer to the deck (which could turn the deck into an attractive launching point for teens). I'm also not sure what this may change in terms of our RicoRock waterfall/slide/grotto thingy in the deep end. I also don't like the fact that it requires us to squish our pool up next to our home when we had a decent back yard that we had planned on centering it upon (see aerial picture 2 and 5. Note that playground is no longer there).

4) Other suggestions? Any advice is most appreciated.

 

[PoolguyinCT]

Wow.. how was this not indicated when you bought the house? Just curious

 

[MUPPPP]

Fine print, first time home builder, ignorance.

 

[AUSpool]

If you submit design changes will it trigger application for a new planning permit? Did town planning know about the sewer and eavesment when the current plan was approved?

Maybe rotate the existing pool by 1 - 2 degrees clockwise arround the 20’ line and the sewer easement line so the strait pool edge is aligned with the easement line although this would move the only strait edge away from the house, boundary and retaining wall alignment and may be a red flag to potential buyers. Remove the trait edge and make it total free form?

 

[MUPPPP]

I don't think minor design changes will trigger a new application. The PB got the building permits, so I don't know whether or not town planning knew about the easements. Seems like that is on the city if they didn't do their due diligence, eh?

 

[AUSpool]

Keep in mind that I’m an Aussie and know nothing of American planning permission process but if your PB has the permits and you like the design, I don’t see the problem.

 

[RoyR]

One of the first things they do for new building permits, is checking for setbacks and easements...not sure how this got passed. That said, having a permit does not give you a green light, inspector could still not approve it based on the new information. I have a similar easement on my property, 20ft along the entire rear fence, and I built the rear of the pool right up to it. I’d change the pool to a “L” shape, and move it to the bottom right of the house...

 

[Dave31410]

Generally utility easements prohibit any permanent construction.

 

[Gladius Nova]

How far does it encroach onto the easement? We had a similar issue where the pool build encroached over a (utility) easement by 1 1/2 feet and they eventually approved it. We are getting large landscaping pavers which are not considered "permanent structures" to put over the easement so if anything, they can be pulled up if they ever need access (which will probably never happen). And like someone else mentioned, it may cause an issue if you plan on selling down the road.

 

[cfherrman]

If there is a problem with the line and they need that space to fix it bye bye pool.

 

[Txjole]

I wouldn't build on the easement. I have been in an easement fight with some lake property and you never win. Plus a new survey if you go to sell could cause problems.

 

[MUPPPP]

Its not technically illegal to build on the easement, it’s just that on the off chance they ever need to get to that sewer, there is a possibility that they have to remove anything obstructing their access. The chances have to be like more than one and 10000 that they never need to access that small section of the sewer anyway. I think it’s a chance I’m willing to take.

I am leaning towards just shrinking the footprint of the original plan a bit, moving it a bit closer to the house/deck, and having just a bit of the wall and patio breaching the easement with no pool breaching the easement. And no portion of anything breaching the actual sewer line.

And if we ever decide to sell the house and it becomes an issue, I can knock a few thousand dollars off the price to cover for any potential issues that may arise to where they would have to remove a small section of retaining wall temporarily.

 

[MUPPPP]

A reputable local civil engineer is telling us that the easement is so big because the pipe is likely 30 feet below the ground. And with that being the case, there is almost no scenario in which he can envision them ever needing to access that pipe, because digging that deep would be cost prohibitive. They would have many other ways to access that pipe with scopes and what not.

And he also said that there are retaining walls all over town that routinely encroach upon easements that never become a problem.

 

[Txjole]

I'll tell you my story, I built a boat house on the lake, put an irrigation shed below the flood line easement. Went to sell about 4 years later and the survey pointed out the slab was below easement. Buyers wanted it corrected. Cost was too great and they were able to walk on the contract days before closing. Ended up selling it later but I had to put in on the disclosure after that and I think it cost me several buyers and several grand.

 

[santacruzpool]

Do you have anything in your original Title report from when you bought your house that mentions this easement?

The reason I ask is when we bought our house we also had a utility easement on the back of our lot and an additional easement was to allow for the prior owners of our large (now sub-divided) property to have hay delivered to their cows - we aren't in farm area and the access easement was fortunately taken off our property by the Title company during the purchase of the lot. At the time the Title officer told me if you want to build a pool in your backyard now you can - little did I know then that is exactly what would happen only 3 years later.

The confusing part about our easement is it was listed as a shared easement with the utility easement for electric and sewer. This easement is right behind the back of our lot and crosses our lot much like yours does. There is enough space for our electric company to access that power pole and we kept our retaining walls about 5ft away from our property line just in case. I am not sure about the sewer line but there is a huge man hole cover about 10ft from the back corner of our lot (one of those big street size man holes).

While we were digging for the pool, and the retaining walls, we found multiple direct buried live 220-240V wires, along with some additional abandoned wires, that all ran down into our property from a power pole right to where our new retaining wall was being formed - we eventually poured the retaining walls right up to those wires and just tucked them out of the way carefully. Turns out the wires feed one of the houses above us. This house is owned by part of the family we bought our lot from - they built our sub-division. At some point in the past they must have wanted to underground the power to their house, so they trenched and just ran the bare wires down into their family property and then over to their house - instead of keeping them in the easement.

During a huge rain storm that first winter their power went out - and the electric company found breaks/leaks in their lines right behind our retaining wall. Of course this was literally days after having our landscaping installed. I got to sit out in the rain and watch them hand dig around our retaining walls and use a bunch of water proof splice connectors to patch the line back together. Then they just re-buried the wires...

I was able to get PG&E to reimburse me for the damage they did digging things up since we are not on their actual easement. For now these lines still exist on our property - bare 220v wires running in the ground - I would love them to be moved back into the actual utility easement at some point and put in a proper conduit, but my calls and emails to the local office to get this done went nowhere. I guess it is a good thing we have everything properly bonded .

 

[Arizonarob]

While we were digging for the pool, and the retaining walls, we found multiple direct buried live 220-240V wires, along with some additional abandoned wires

That’s crazy! Did you call Dig Safe before starting? Or did you get extremely lucky and just miss them with the excavator?

 

[MUPPPP]

That’s crazy! Did you call Dig Safe before starting? Or did you get extremely lucky and just miss them with the excavator?

No doubt, how scary!

 

[HeyEng]

Its not technically illegal to build on the easement, it’s just that on the off chance they ever need to get to that sewer, there is a possibility that they have to remove anything obstructing their access. The chances have to be like more than one and 10000 that they never need to access that small section of the sewer anyway. I think it’s a chance I’m willing to take.

I am leaning towards just shrinking the footprint of the original plan a bit, moving it a bit closer to the house/deck, and having just a bit of the wall and patio breaching the easement with no pool breaching the easement. And no portion of anything breaching the actual sewer line.

And if we ever decide to sell the house and it becomes an issue, I can knock a few thousand dollars off the price to cover for any potential issues that may arise to where they would have to remove a small section of retaining wall temporarily.

That really depends. The OP needs to search the public records (most are online these days) where deeds/etc are filed and read the terms of the easement. Any restrictions on building should be listed on the easement that is recorded. If you still have the title commitment paperwork, then it might be easier because it *should* list this easement as well as a book/page that it's recorded on.

 

[santacruzpool]

That’s crazy! Did you call Dig Safe before starting? Or did you get extremely lucky and just miss them with the excavator?

We had the utilities "marked" and I warned our excavator about the possibility of lines - but we had no idea.

Once we found the lines it was a bit of a surprise - the paint marks were a good 5 ft away - but later talking with the utility they told me that the lines are not very accurate....it is just a guess.

We had a in-ground box that I knew was the live wires just at our fence line. The wires went downhill from there....instead of straight over to the house, or back into the utility easement.

At the time I joked I should just hook up my pool pump and equipment to the lines and they would never know...

edit: found a photo showing the line - the pole and utility easement is behind the wire fence in the background.

 

[santacruzpool]

Back to the original posters problem - I like the idea of moving your pool just a bit and turning it to match the easement line - make the retaining wall follow the same line...Keep the pool as big as you can, even if you have to move it and turn it a little.