Three owners, one property
Your stormwater runs to a point Darebin calls the Legal Point of Discharge, usually a Council underground drain, a right of way or the kerb and channel. Every pipe before that point is yours to keep working, including any section under the nature strip. Past it, Council takes over.
Sewage heads the other way, into a main that Yarra Valley Water maintains, and Darebin says owners clean and repair all private sewage drains. Exactly where Yarra Valley Water's part of the connection ends varies with the property, so ask it to confirm before a plumber digs near the boundary.
Preston in numbers and rules
Fewer houses than most suburbs
At the 2021 Census, 55.7% of occupied homes in the suburb of Preston were separate houses, 24.9% semis, terraces or townhouses and 18.3% flats or apartments.
Four in ten rent
40.1% of those homes were rented, against 28.5% across Victoria.
Detention systems are private
Darebin requires on-site stormwater detention to manage runoff from high-density development. Inside a development, the system belongs to the owner or owners corporation, not Council.
Low hardness
Yarra Valley Water's Preston and Ivanhoe sampling areas averaged 18 mg/L and 17 mg/L of hardness in 2025-26, far under the 200 mg/L guideline.
Townhouses and detention systems
An on-site detention system holds stormwater back and releases it slowly, so a new development doesn't overload the drains below it. In a Preston townhouse block it is shared private property. If it overflows, the owners corporation organises the repair, and complaints about its design or installation go to the building surveyor who approved it.
Renting? Report the problem to your rental provider first. A blocked or broken toilet and a burst water service are both on Victoria's urgent repairs list, and rental providers must act on those immediately.
When the yard floods or a drain gurgles
Find the discharge point
Follow the downpipes to where the pipe meets the kerb or a Council drain. Up to there, the pipe is yours.
Check whether it's sewage
A smell or toilet paper at an overflowing gully means the sewer is involved, not stormwater, and needs a drain specialist.
Get the private pipe looked at
Darebin recommends a plumber for any private drainage problem. Our Melbourne blocked drains page explains how the blockage is found.
Our advice
Before booking anyone, work out which of the three systems has the problem: your own stormwater pipes, a shared detention system, or the sewer. That single answer tells you whether you, the owners corporation, Council or Yarra Valley Water should act. Then send the job through and a licence-checked specialist can take it on.