Irish Water Wayleave Endorsement

ppbdev

Our neighbour wants to build an extension to their property next door.

We share the same water mains for our input water supply.

To get planning approval the neighbour must:

1 - Grant Irish Water a "WayLeave".
2 - Re Route the mains pipe within their own boundary so that it will be 3 meters from thier extension.

They have been told that Irish Water (and by extension the planning authority) will look more favorably on their extension plans, and plans to reroute if:

A) The neighbor (me) will endrose the plans to reroute the mains (ie say "thats no problem")
The neighbor Also sign a "WayLeave agreement" for irish water for their own property.

Question:
1 - is this normal?
2 - should i sign?
3 - Any concerns i should have?

Im a bit old for understanding these requests so if anyone can help it would be great

sydthebeat

My own view...... this application has nothing to do with your property so you shouldnt be offering access in this instance.

By all means provide a letter saying youve no issue with the reroute, provided the final outcome doesnt contravene the status quo of your connection.

You could include in this letter that, in the case where you were planning on a similar such extension, you would then offer Irish Water a way leave over your lands.


worst case scenario if you sign a way leave now, you could come home one day to your garden dug up by irish water

Vim Fuego

I am in the same scenario as your neighbour - so my answer is biased but I think you should consider working with your neighbour and putting yourself in their shoes. They would not be asking for this unless they really needed it and they are still bound by all planning rules for their extension.

The Irish water rules are tough if you have a narrow garden. It can be hard to build an appropriate extension without looking to neighbours for a wayleave agreement. Even if every other house built over the water lines years ago, the new applications have to abide by the rules.

There is also the scenario where the inability to extend can affect the value of properties in that area. In my road there’s many case studies where tiny houses with massive gardens are being refused planning so their value could be lower without the ability to turn them into family homes.

In my case as the requesting neighbour, I would offer my garden to be accessed in case of any servicing need of Irish Water. If you yourself ever plan to extend, you could seek agreement with your neighbour to attach your water diversion to their already diverted line. This would give you a larger footprint in which to extend. If you have no plans to extend, this could affect the next occupant.

It’s unlikely that your garden would be dug up without a reason. In the event of a fault, you would want IW to do repairs anyway. So I say, be kind to your neighbours needs and use your best judgement to understand their motivations.

rayjdav

Is it a water or foul main? Im assuming it is the rear of property?
Usually water is fed from front via boundary box & foul used to be rear in some circumstances.

Who is actually asking for this as IW usually only send out connection agreements with conditions after planning has been granted and full details submitted for approval by them? IW have no legal standing to request you to submit anything at this point as the works are not affected by you... If there are other properties on the line are they being requested to provide the same or just you as adjoining property?

If it was me I would not be offering IW anything unless you have something to gain from it. Any request should also be addressed to you, not via a third party. Also, who will cover the legal costs to you in the provision of the mapping/registration for the wayleave???