No drain without pain

Grant Adams is locked in a battle with the Auckland City Council over who'll pay to fix a faulty stormwater pipe. He tells Sophie Bond how draining it is.
This is a tale of a man, drain and pain. Grant Adams lives in an Avondale house with a large garden. He wanted to build two more houses on his land so went to the Auckland City Council to get the all-clear. As expected, there were some costs to pay before he could begin.
One big surprise, however, was a contribution of $9000 to help upgrade the city's stormwater system. The council also told him he needed to provide subterranean photos of the council-owned stormwater drain that happens to run under his property.
Mr Adams hired a man with camera-probe equipment to do just that, and the footage showed half a dozen faults along the 37.5cm diameter, 27m pipe.
"Aha," thought Mr Adams, "that could explain the big cracks in my driveway, and my neighbour's, where the pipe passes underneath."
Mr Adams wrote to the council asking for the necessary repairs to be done. He thought that would be the end of the story and he could get on with building this summer.
It has turned out to be far more complicated.
Auckland City Council arranged for its own CCTV footage of the leaky stormwater pipe and an assessment by Metrowater. In a letter to Mr Adams, it concludes there are some "badly displaced joints" but the drain is "unlikely to fail in the immediate future".
It also says works are planned in the area but it can't say when. Finally, if Mr Adams wishes to go ahead with his building, he must first replace the boundary-to-boundary section of pipe.
Mr Adams feels the council is using knowledge of his building project to force him to pay for the work. "The building isn't relevant. The leaking pipe is causing subsidence. The council has plans to replace the pipe but just because I now want to do something on my lawn I have to do the work."
He complained to Mayor John Banks and received a response from environment and utility management group manager Michael McQuillan saying the council accepts that the pipe has "condition and capacity issues" and it will repair the short section between the driveway and the outlet (where Mr Adams is pictured).
If Mr Adams wishes to build, the council will grant consent only if he diverts the pipe around his building site.
Mr Adams says he has tried to co-operate with council requests but is very annoyed with a system that can make a ratepayer foot the bill for a public asset.
Rule book
Michael McQuillan refused to comment on  Grant Adams' situation but did provide The Aucklander with the piece of legislation supporting the council's decision: part 26 of the Local Government Act 1974, dealing with stormwater and sewage drainage.
The section relevant to Mr Adams says that if a property owner's building project is going to interfere with council drains the property owner needs to get the okay from the council to divert, alter, protect or replace said drains.
The cost of the work is borne by the person doing the building.
What do you think? Email: letters@theaucklander.co.nz