Drinking water pipe from another house under the planned construction project

Hello everyone,

when I applied for our drinking water connection at the waterworks, it was noticed that the supply for another house runs beneath our planned construction project. The waterworks now says that we have to cover the costs for relocating this pipe.

The plot we bought used to be the garden of the house whose pipe runs there.

Here is a picture for better understanding:


Red 1 = house whose pipe runs through our property. Red line is the new boundary. We own the plot with the hard-to-read 280. The water pipe is marked in black.

Is this legally okay? Do we have to pay for it, or the waterworks? Or the previous owner of our property, whose pipe now runs over our land?

Unfortunately, this is not clear to me from the law (AVBWasserV).

Thanks in advance & best regards

Is there a land charge registered in the land register?

Hi,

what has been agreed upon in the purchase contract regarding this?
Probably nothing, otherwise you would have written something about it.

Have any encumbrances been registered? My opinion is that something like in the picture is only possible if there is a right of way for the line.

What about the other utilities?
Have you already clarified that question?

I would say, without a regulation in the purchase contract and without a regulation in the land register, the former owner has to take care of laying the line off your property.

In my opinion, matters like lines etc. on the property and what is to be done with them are actually clarified before the purchase.

Best regards and good luck with the construction.

Most likely the former owner simply forgot where (and if) the line ran over his former property.

That line definitely has to be removed. The neighbor and former owner obviously wants water, so he needs a new connection.

If nothing is stated in the purchase contract, the neighbor simply forgot. Basically, that's his bad luck. Depending on how he behaves now and how the relationship will suffer, one could possibly agree on a fifty-fifty arrangement. But this also depends, for example, on the price of the property (with a cheap property, there is definitely nothing left from the sales proceeds – even if legally it wouldn’t matter), how the neighbor behaves overall, etc.

I always find it great how companies, authorities, etc. immediately claim that you are to blame and have to pay. We need a law that punishes these premature accusations of guilt with claims for damages :)

Thank you for your opinions. No easement, no building encumbrance. Nothing was regulated in the purchase contract either, the seller was not aware of this. Neither were we. We assumed that the cables run in the driveway where, for example, the sewer line also runs.

We still need to clarify the other utilities. Electricity and telecommunications are still open. Although the electricity provider has received the plans of the house/property and at least has not said anything. So either the electricity does not run through our property or the electricity provider has not checked this...

By the way, we do not want the previous owner to pay for the fun alone. Now we have to find a joint solution. I had hoped a bit that the waterworks would have to take care of the installation... Too bad.

Very likely all supply lines are in 1 trench. Definitely makes sense. The supplier has nothing to do with the costs.