The city's lateral thinking

Letters to the editor - St. John's city council recently rescinded a law passed last July that allowed city residents to do major renovations to their home without having to upgrade outdated laterals.

There was a bit of confusion generated about this issue and I'd like to briefly explain what exactly we changed and why. Now, 90 per cent of the people I spoke to regarding this issue asked me the same question, "What the heck are laterals?"

The name alone is confusing. Being a real estate agent, I've done home renovations so I'm quite familiar with what they are.

Laterals are the pipes that run from your home to the main water line. Before the 1970s, these pipes could be half an inch in diameter, but after that, the National Plumbing Code said laterals should be upgraded to a minimum of three-quarter inch pipes.

That's because the pipes they use in plumbing now that are connected to the laterals are at least three-quarter inch pipes. Some are even bigger.

So you have big pipes connected to small pipes. That's going to build up pressure at the join and the laterals will break. Plus the new pipes are made of stronger material and don't corrode and cause clogs or in some cases sewer back up.

And the kicker is, if the home is sold and the laterals aren't up to the National Plumbing Code, the city could be sued if something was to happen.

That's yours and my tax dollars at work.

I think we can agree that we all want a modern, clean, as trouble-free-as-possible city, and I'd hazard a guess that you're like me and don't really enjoy paying taxes.

Under the law we rescinded, the city had to fix the laterals when they broke, and they will all break at some point. That, of course, costs money and the city generates its revenues through taxes, so in essence you and I were paying to have the work done.

If the laterals had been upgraded, they wouldn't be a problem.

If your laterals are not upgraded, don't worry - you only have to upgrade them if you're doing renovations that will cost 50 per cent of the value of your home.

The average selling price for a house in St. John's right now is $300,000. That means you'd have to do $150,000 in renovations, on average, to have to upgrade your laterals. That's a lot of renovations, so why not upgrade your laterals as well? Otherwise, as I've said, it's like putting bald tires on a brand new Cadillac. Now, anyone doing renovations on that scale will have to upgrade their laterals.

The reason we rescinded the law was because it was simply wrong.

The City of St. John's Act, which is provincial legislation, clearly states that laterals are the responsibility of the homeowner. So if they're responsible for something and it breaks, they should pay for it, not you and me. Not the taxpayer, but that's exactly what was happening, we were paying because someone who was spending a lot of money renovating didn't upgrade their laterals.

If the provincial legislation states laterals are the homeowner's responsibility, if the laterals are not up to national code, if it leaves us open to lawsuits, if it stops our city from being cleaner and more beautiful, and if the taxpayers of this city are paying for someone else's renovations, it's wrong, wrong, wrong.

So, we voted to have that law rescinded so that now if someone is doing renovations on a home worth 50 per cent or more of the value of that home, they have to upgrade their laterals so that you and I, as taxpayers, don't end up paying for the repairs. And you can bet on it, there will be repairs.

If you'd like more in-depth or technical explanations visit www.ward4 report.com or give me a call at 699-7035.

Debbie Hanlon is a St. John's councillor.