A sewer repair order is most commonly issued to a property owner after the city becomes aware that the sewer is broken and as a result, is creating a hazardous condition. The hazardous condition can be a roadway sinkhole, sewer back ups or sewage seeping into a neighbors basement.
After receiving a complaint call, the city will send a field supervisor to investigate and conclude upon the root of the problem. Most of the time this will result in a sewer camera inspection which will give a clear picture on the condition of the pipe, as well as any breaks.
Once the city has identified the exact problem, they will issue a sewer repair order, AKA cease and desist violation for the property owner to repair the broken sewer.
These types of violations usually catch the property owner by surprise, creating frustration and the finger pointing starts! For some reason property owners are quick to say that they will sue the city without having any real support behind the statement. After calming down and obtaining a detailed summary from a licensed plumber, the property owner usually starts to absorb all of the details and begins working on a resolution.
The repair cost is usually costly, for this reason the property owner may want to hire their own plumber to assist in a diagnosis and compare findings against the city report. If you agree with the city findings it is also time to start discussing the option of replacing the entire sewer line with your plumber, instead of repairing one section of the pipe.
The downside to repairing one section is that you may have to perform several repairs over the coming years as the old pipe continues to fall. The upside would be the cost savings, repairing a section of pipe is considerable less expensive than replacing the entire sewer line.
The huge benefit to replacing the entire sewer line at once is that you will never have to think about replacing the sewer again and the cost savings of replacing it at once is considerably greater than repairing several times over a few years.
