[jyl]

My neighbor and I have, it appears, a party sewer line. I'm told the main line is on his property and I'm on the branch line. This neighborhood was developed 100 years ago.

When I bought my house 10 years ago, a sewerscope company did the inspection and told me that my sewer line was not in great shape and might need to be replaced in the next several years. When my neighbor bought his house two years ago, his inspection company told him the same thing. Neither of us recall hearing about the party sewer line when we moved in, although it's possible we were told and don't remember. However, my former neighbor (predecessor of the current neighbor) later told me that our houses shared his sewer connection.

My neighbor has been having backup problems. I have never had any. Recently he was backed up so badly that RotoRooter was at his house until near midnight.

Today a RotoRooter supervisor visited him and said his sewer line is near failure, recommended a trenchless sewer line replacement, and also said that current code won't permit a party line, so I will be disconnected from the sewer when his line is replaced. RotoRooter's estimate for my neighbor is $6000. The supervisor's guesstimate for me is $20,000, because I'd need a whole new connection to the street.

Any thoughts?

My first question is why I have no sewage problems while my neighbor has serious ones.

My second question is whether we should get a sewerscope company, not affiliated with RotoRooter, to inspect both systems and give us another opinion. I imagine this is a no-brainer?

My third question is if it makes sense that we can't continue being on the party sewer, aiming that is indeed the case.

My fourth question is what do you all know about installing a new sewer connection. How is it done? The house grade is elevated about 8 feet above the street grade. The main stack in my basement is about 80 feet from the curb, with about 25 feet of basement slab between stack and the foundation wall closest to the street. There are some huge mature trees between stack and street. There is really no way to get heavy equipment in there to dig a trench, and I'm worried the trees will get killed in the process.