Cottage next door is on the market

sleepymans

Mine and next door's old cottages are semi detached and share one septic tank which is sited in my garden with the deeds stating all drainage costs are shared.
Mains drainage is available in the road outside and I want to connect to the mains because the septic tank is not adequate and causes me problems in wet ground conditions.
I am on good terms with the neighbour who has always paid 50% of costs no bother. However when I suggested we ought to go on mains - absolutely refuses to consider it on the grounds of cost.
It would cost in the region of £2k each to go on mains and our water rates would rise from the embarassingly low £60 p.a. it is now!
However its my property that has the disadvantages of the poor septic tank drainage.
However to keep things friendly I have compromised and allowed frequent emptying to maintain it just bearably.

Anyway now next door is on the market. I am afraid that new owners might not be as friendly and I would really LOVE to get this resolved permanently before the current neighbours move on. (They say they are selling up for financial reasons)

Can I influence things by registering the "problem" somehow? I'm thinking about the sellers questionnaire and informing the EA that there is "an issue" here.
What would you do? If they are moving away I'm not so anxious to remain on the best of terms if you know what I mean.....

MJMum

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sleepymans

MJMum wrote:

I would imagine that just about anyone looking to buy the place would leap at putting it on mains sewerage. No one really wants a septic tank in this day and age."

The cottages are in a fairly rural village and mains drainage was only made available in the last few years, when a new estate was built further along - before that the whole village had septic tanks.


" Perhaps you could just let the EA know that "you would have no objection to mains connection, if the septic tank should be an issue for any prospective buyers"...or something very innocent like that.

The only thing with that would be why would I be phoning their EA? They have nothing to do with the legal questionnaire and would no doubt tell seller about this unusual approach by their neighbour.??
I would like to drop it in the lap of their solicitor - ever so nicely- but of course I dont know who they are??

The thing is that if the new owners find out after the completion date that seller has not been totally honest in the (sellers) questionnaire, might they then sue the seller for damages?

Do you think a surveyor would contact me for permission to look at the condition of the tank??

MJMum

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TokochickUK

I dont think you need to make it something to sabotage or hold sellers to ransome with, but if it was pointed out to new buyers im sure they would appreciate you being a thoughtfull neighbour and trying to make things easier for them in the future x

hearts

Why not pay for the whole thing and thats your problem sorted.

callmelinda

sleepymans wrote:

Mine and next door's old cottages are semi detached and share one septic tank which is sited in my garden with the deeds stating all drainage costs are shared.
Mains drainage is available in the road outside and I want to connect to the mains because the septic tank is not adequate and causes me problems in wet ground conditions.
I am on good terms with the neighbour who has always paid 50% of costs no bother. However when I suggested we ought to go on mains - absolutely refuses to consider it on the grounds of cost.
It would cost in the region of £2k each to go on mains and our water rates would rise from the embarassingly low £60 p.a. it is now!
However its my property that has the disadvantages of the poor septic tank drainage.
However to keep things friendly I have compromised and allowed frequent emptying to maintain it just bearably.

Anyway now next door is on the market. I am afraid that new owners might not be as friendly and I would really LOVE to get this resolved permanently before the current neighbours move on. (They say they are selling up for financial reasons)

Can I influence things by registering the "problem" somehow? I'm thinking about the sellers questionnaire and informing the EA that there is "an issue" here.
What would you do? If they are moving away I'm not so anxious to remain on the best of terms if you know what I mean.....

It always seems difficult whenever something is shared between neighbours and a problem arises.

My knowledge of septic tanks is limited, but I was under the impression that a fully working one which is the right size for the purpose should not continually need to be emptied throughout a year - shouldn't it be once or twice a year?

Therefore, if, to make it bearable, it is having to be emptied much more than this, surely this suggests it is not fit for the purpose it is there for whether it be because of size, age, or defects. I'm sure all things have a lifespan and septic tanks must be the same.

If it's an old one, you could ask a professional or the environment agency for their advice on whether or not it is actually legal nowadays - I'm not 100% on this, but if it was built a long time ago, the environment laws may well have been more leniant then and if any untreated stuff is being "let out" now so to speak, it might not meet current environmental standards?

If you really want to be on mains and it doesn't look like your neighbour will help willingly at least, plus there's no saying the next neighbour you get will be different (we're just hoping they would be), I would get in touch with a septic tank professional and/or the environment agency. The latter might come and check since I would think they may well be duty bound to do so if a concern is raised.

As I say, I'm not an expert on septic tanks but if this makes logical sense, then I hope the advice is useful.

And, good luck.

mossstar

I always had septic tanks in the UK, and have one here in New Zealand (where they're very common, along with 'bio cycles' that reuse the water (cleaned) in your garden).

If you're having probs with it then you need to do something - personally i'd get it fixed to keep the low water rates!

We have a prob with ours - when we have heavy rain it 'backs up' slightly. I've had an engineer 'round and we uncovered a problem with the outflow field (the tank obv. has a crack in it somewhere too). They're not major probs and he said he'd be tempted to just leave it till it gives in completely (it's 50 years old). We've opted for a new septic tank (we don't have the option of public water here as we're zoned 'countryside', and anyway it's so much cheaper to be off it!).

One thing to consider is the amount of water generated now as compared to when it was built - my last one in the UK was 100years old (but was thankfully massive!). So was now dealing with a huge increase in water (dishwashers, washing machines and showers/baths not having been around a centuary ago!).

So - what i'd do is get a drainage/sewerage engineer round to do a quote for 'fixing' or 'replacing' the tank, then take that quote to your neighbour (who i suspect will be oblidged to contribute 50%). Once he sees that figure as compared to the 2k gdp for public sewerage, your problems will probably be over! :T

good luck!

Steph

david29dpo

i love my septic tank! we had as similar problem a while ago. four houses share our tank which is emptied twice a year. the tank is at the end of one houses drive. she as always moaned about the smell but it her who has the washer on 24 hours a day. after politely saying all the bleach etc she uses is killing the bugs in the tank, the smell stopped. then it started to over flow when the weather was very wet. it turned out the soakaway was partially blocked,(i think this may be your problem). this was fixed and its now fine.

Debt_Free_Chick

sleepymans wrote:

Mine and next door's old cottages are semi detached and share one septic tank which is sited in my garden with the deeds stating all drainage costs are shared.

What do the deeds say? In particular, are you required to provide drainage for your neighbour?

As you are currently providing drainage, I would have thought you could simply change from the septic tank to mains drainage. But you really need to speak to YOUR solicitor to establish what your obligations are.

PosterBoy77

From what I know about septic tanks, they are supposed to work well and not require emptying. They only cause problems if they are too small, have a problem with their soakaway or the wrong detergents are used in the hoam that kill the bacteria within them. If I were a buyer I would rather see it fixed as in years to come the owner of the property will see large savings in water rates.