What's different about Clayton
Two water companies
Clayton appears on both retailers' supply lists, and Melbourne has three water retailers in all. The company named on your bill is the one whose meter and sewer rules you follow.
A suburb of renters
At the 2021 Census, 60.7% of occupied homes in the suburb of Clayton were rented, roughly double Victoria's 28.5%.
Townhouses lead
42.5% of those homes were townhouses, terraces or semis, 35.4% separate houses and 21.7% flats or apartments.
Monash: drains out to Council's system
Monash says the owner builds and maintains all drains, including any outside the property boundary, up to Council's stormwater system. That includes the pipes under the footpath and nature strip.
Renting? What changes in 2027
With most Clayton homes rented, hot water failures often land with a landlord. From 1 March 2027, when a rental's hot water system permanently fails and can't be repaired, it must be replaced with an efficient heat pump water heater or an electric-boosted solar water heater.
Tenants: report the fault to your landlord or agent in writing. Landlords: our Melbourne hot water page explains the options.
Nobody has a map of your drains
Monash says it has limited information on where private drains run, because plumbers don't have to tell Council when they install them. So the first part of fixing an old blockage is often finding the pipe.
A CCTV drain inspection can trace the line and show where it's broken. One catch: if your bill says South East Water, have the plumber check whether the blockage is on South East Water's side first. It won't reimburse a job where CCTV was used.
Trees and drain repairs
Victorian Government controls now require a planning permit to remove, destroy or lop a canopy tree on residential land in some situations, and parts of Monash also sit under a Vegetation Protection Overlay. If a drain repair means taking out a large tree, ask Monash first.
What we would do
Find your water bill before you call anyone. If it's South East Water, its refund for a blockage on its side depends on the plumber referring it before jetting, cameras or root cutting. If it's Yarra Valley Water, ask it where your part of the sewer ends, because that depends on the property. Then book a drain specialist who knows that company's rules.