Easements
About one in 10 properties in South Australia contain an easement. An easement is a section of land on your property which gives someone else a legal and specific right to use or access that area of land, even though they are not the owner. Easements often include shared driveways, rights to park a vehicle, or the right for utility providers like SA Water, or councils, to have pipes, drains, and cables on private land, and include the right to repair or replace these services.
Most of the time your easement will contain water or wastewater. However, some easements may be reserved for future pipework or may contain pipes that are no longer in use.
Where possible, we will always have our water and sewer mains located underground on roads and public land. However in some situations, such as the slope of land, we can provide a better service to our customers if they are placed on private property. If we don’t do this, we will always try to place these services close to the boundaries to reduce the impact to the property owner.
Easements may be for a range of purposes including:
- sewerage
- water supply
- electricity supply
- right of way
- cathodic protection
- a combination of the above
Easements are not physically marked, like boundaries are with fences.
When buying property, you should legally be given a 'Register Search' and 'Form 1' which will have details on any easements. The SA Land Titles Office keeps an electronic copy of all land in the state and this includes details of easements.
If you aren't sure whether your property contains an easement, you can check the certificate of title. For more information on how to do this, visit sa.gov.au.
You are able to speak to us about any unused easements. Please note that fees are applicable for this investigation. To begin the process, please call us on 1300 650 950 or email at propertyservices@sawater.com.au.