Building outside your home
Before making improvements or changes in your yard, it is important to know if Yarra Valley Water has any infrastructure or easements within your property.
Many things, such as sheds and pools, cannot be placed over sewer mains or other Yarra Valley Water pipes, so it is important that you know where they are located.
Before you start
- Find out where our infrastructure is within your property by purchasing a plan of your property. Find out how to purchase a property asset plan.
- Consider Yarra Valley Water's and property owner's responsibilities for the sewer connection points. View property connection branch responsibilities.
- If you are planning on undertaking any work on your property it is important that you ensure your design plans are compliant with our BOE guidelines. If your plans don’t comply with our guidelines, you may be required to undertake remedial works or change your plans and reapply. This will incur additional costs.
View BOE Guidelines 2024
Use of previous BOE guidelines - customer grace period
Our BOE guidelines were updated on 4 March 2024. We recognise that some customers will have invested time and resources on plans to meet the BOE guidelines dated 2014, but whose application will be submitted on or soon after 4 March 2024. For these customers, we’ll allow a grace period for applications with plans that meet the BOE guidelines dated 2014.
This grace period will end on 30 June 2024.
View previous BOE Guidelines 2014
Types of works include:
- Building a carport, garage or shed
- Installing a rainwater tank
- Building a patio or decking
- Installing a swimming pool (above or below ground) - View information
- Excavating and/or landscaping including cut and/or fill
- Building a fence or retaining wall (including a pool fence)
- Laying a new driveway or paving
- Building houses, warehouse, apartment block, studio or outhouse, dependant persons’ unit or granny flat
- Adding an extension to an existing building
- Demolishing a property.
Apply for approval
Before you start work, you need to get your plans approved by Yarra Valley Water. To do this, you need to submit a Build Over Easement application online. You will need to include a full set of site plans, including elevation plans and structural plans if applicable, with your application.
View a step by step guide for submitting a Build Over Easement Application online
Tree planting near sewer pipes
Trees are beautiful, shady and provide valuable shelter for local fauna, but their root systems can damage sewer pipes. Planted too close to the sewer, your beautiful tree could one day end up becoming a very costly and messy problem.
The below fact sheet contains more information, along with a list of tree species that should not be planted in close proximity to sewer pipes.