Easements
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.
How we use easements
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
How to identify an easement
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.
Removal of an easement
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.
Building over an easement
Major faults
Polkinghorns Rd
Arthurton
- 18/06/2020
Water Supply On
- 18/06/2020 03:05 PM - We are attending to an incident in Arthurton with no interruption to the water supply. The safety of our crews and customers comes first, and we always aim to minimise inconvenience by restoring services as quickly as we can. Reference Number WO: 07505663.
- See all major faults
Scheduled works
Spruance Rd
Elizabeth East
- 11/06/2021
Temporary Supply Interruption
- Estimated start time and water supply off: 15/06/2021 09:00 AM
Estimated restore time and water supply back on: 15/06/2021 04:00 PM
We’re improving your services and undertaking maintenance work in Elizabeth East. Sometimes our crews need to temporarily interrupt the water supply to our customers and/or manage traffic while they are working. Temporary traffic management may remain in place until reinstatement of the impacted road is complete. We always aim to minimise inconvenience by restoring services as safely and quickly as we can. - See all scheduled works
