Apply to build near an asset or easement
Building over or near our assets
If you’re planning to build over or near any of our easements or underground assets you’ll need to get our consent before starting any work.
Our water supply, sewerage and drainage assets are a series of pipelines, channels and other conduits. These are buried or above-ground, and of various sizes, shapes and forms. They are made of a variety of materials common at the time of construction. Some date back to the 19th century, and some operate under internal pressure while others do not.
Some of our critical pipe assets are protected by acquired easements over land, but we have many critical assets that don’t have easements. Structures built near our assets must meet our clearance requirements and foundation criteria to protect our assets and your structure. This is to help avoid any damage or community disruption.
As per the Water Act 1989 Section 148 you must obtain our approval for any works within 5 metres of our assets. Any works undertaken without Melbourne Water approval will be considered illegal. Other authorities may have to give their approval too.
Types of structures over our assets
We will consider the construction of:
- removable carports - minimum of three open sides with flat roof
- concrete driveways and pavers
- wooden fences parallel to, or crossing our assets.
We won’t allow:
- habitable structures such as buildings, extensions
- above or in-ground swimming pools
- permanent structures
- brick fences crossing any of our assets
- reduction of access for maintenance and operations of our assets.
Application process
Documents required
You’ll need the following information for your application:
- land owners contact details – email, and postal address
- short description of your planned development
- copy of Certificate of Title
- preliminary plans and location of our asset, including standard drawings
- photographs of the area affected (optional).
Preliminary plans
Your preliminary plans help us to assess your application. They need to show:
- structure type, specifications, general dimensions
- location of the structure within the property
- proposed and existing structures, showing the offset or distance from easement and/or our assets
- details of landscaping, including location and types of plants (refer to our Planting Guidelines)
- any proposed service crossing of our assets (refer to our Utilities Crossing Guidelines)
- footing* details including type and depth (refer to our angle of repose requirements)
- detailed plans of the development including any driveways, landscaping and fencing
- relevant standard drawings.
Please ensure any specifications comply with our building requirements for works around our assets and easements.
*Please note: Melbourne Water no longer accepts screw pile near our assets.
Duration
We are currently receiving a high volume of applications due to growth in demand for our services, which has unfortunately created significant delays. We acknowledge your patience and will make every effort to process your applications as soon as we can. View our current processing times.
Fees (non-refundable)
Fees differ depending on the proposed work. We will advise you of the amount once we assess your application.
Fees and security for construction, works and connections
Please note this application fee is non-refundable.
Guidelines or standards
Use our build over guidelines to help prepare your plans:
Important information
Your application may experience a delay if there are any issues. Delays in the application process may happen if:
- The information and documentation are incomplete or missing.
- We need to further investigate the complexity of the development.
We assess applications on a case-by-case basis and will notify you of the following outcomes once we have completed the review.
- The application approved. Project can move forward.
- The application approved. Conditions need to be met before the project can move forward.
- The application declined. We will notify you of the reasons the project cannot move forward. (reasons given).
- Application needs to be assessed further, and we need more information.
Approval process
You need to have our approval before you start building. If we approve the works, we will send you a letter outlining specific conditions you must meet as part of our approval and any relevant fees.
Before starting work you must enter into a Building Agreement with us that defines liability and ongoing maintenance. Agreements will be delivered electronically via a highly secure, encrypted online platform. This will enable faster execution of agreements and eliminates the need paper agreements.
You may also be required to:
- locate our asset to a Level B survey and include the survey results on your plans
- conduct pre- and post- CCTV of our asset
- provide a services condition report prepared by an accredited engineer
- conduct vibration monitoring
- provide a flood response plan
- provide a work method statement detailing protection of our asset
- ensure that all contractors who carry out works on our live assets are authorised by Melbourne Water
- allow inspections at different stages of the works (letter of approval will confirm this requirement)
- provide evidence of approvals from other authorities affected by your works
- check you comply with other laws that may affect your development, such as Special Building Overlay and Land Subject to Inundation Overlay or other planning overlays over your property.
Asset protection requirements
You will need to ensure that during construction the continued structural integrity of our asset is maintained. The following requirements include:
- no loads are imposed on our asset from your structure.
- your structure must be fully supported in the event that our asset fails and collapses
- footings of your structure must meet our angle of repose requirements
- clearances provided by us are maintained.
Contact us
If you need any help to complete this application, contact us 131 722