Neighbor's Sewer Backing Up on My Property

[Eric Rossi]

Hello,

I bought my first rental property 3 years ago, which was an old (1886) single family home in the city.  About a year after buying it, my tenants started complaining about smelling sewer gases.  After doing a camera inspection, we found that my sewer line was totally shot.  My house was connected to a lateral line that ran out to the main, and this lateral line is on my neighbor's property.  So, the plumbing company that I hired disconnected me from the original lateral line and instead re-ran my sewer line through my home and all the way to the main.  I have not had any issues whatsoever with my new sewer line or plumbing since then.

However, I just noticed a bad smell outside my house and noticed water starting to seep to the surface right along our property line.  I smelled the water and it definitely smells like sewage.  However, it can't be coming from my new sewer line since it runs inside my home and not underground to the original lateral line.  My neighbor doesn't seem to think that his sewer line is the problem, so we finally agreed to split the cost of a camera inspection of his sewer line to see if it is compromised or not.

My biggest issue is what to do if he does not want to fix his sewer line, which I believe is causing sewage to backup on both of our properties (mostly on mine).  I can already tell he doesn't want to fix anything since his tenants are still able to use the toilet, shower, etc. without any problems. Has anyone here had a similar situation?  I fear that he is going to refuse to fix it at this time and we are going to end up in court over this.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

[Tom Fidrych]

If the camera shows his sewer line has failed, he will have to fix it. If he refuses, you can report him to the city or county. In my area, the environmental health department deals with sewage issues and they will inspect it and issue a red tag. Hopefully he is reasonable and you don't have to go that route.