Shared Septic Tank

teffers

Hi all,

I need some opinons please.

I'm 3 weeks into the process of buying a rural semi-detached house in a nearby village.

I've just had the property information questionaire back from my solicitor and it appears the property is served by a shared Septic tank (shared with 1 other house). I've never bought a place in the country before so simply didn't ask the question of the seller and it wasn't mentioned in the sales info.

I have to admit the prosect of having to negotiate the emptying, maintenance and possible renewal costs with a neighbour (who may well change in the future) is not something I'm happy about.

The house is very nice but in no way perfect. A compromise for location if I'm honest.

I realise it's cheaper in terms of water bills.

Do any of you have a similar situation ? Would it put you off buying ?

Any advice / opinion is welcomed

AnotherJoe

It would put me off big time unless the cottage was my "dream home". What do you do if you have a difficult neighbour who simply refuses to pay or always needs to be chased for it?

And then there's the question of how much you pay? You might think it's half but suppose you have four people in your house and they have two and they want to pay one third ? Or other way round, they have four people there all the time, you two are out all day, and you begin to resent paying to empty it every few weeks ?

And then, if you came to sell it, this issue would arise and make it difficult. Doubly an issue if you were in dispute with your neighbours on this point.

In your case especially , as you say it's a compromise, not perfect, etc, even before this arose,, I'd definitely give it a miss.

moneyistooshorttomention

I seem to recall Davesnave has one at his house? - my memory may not be serving me right on that....

So perhaps he has some idea.

Anyways - my two pennorth would be "Is it absolutely crystal clear beyond anyone's possible shadow of doubt that there are no possible boundary disputes or the like?" It does help if there are indeed those "good walls" that make for good neighbours and its absolutely clear whats what in all possible respects - so there are no available "sticks to beat you with" if you and the neighbour disagreed about maintenance of that septic tank.

Valid point re the proportions of costs to be paid by each house. I would think that's something that should be down in the deeds of the house as to proportions and would need checking. It is the type of thing that should have been laid down officially at the outset - precisely because the number of people in each house would be likely to change over the years of different households occupying them. Hence - I would think its most probably laid down at 50% each to save all sorts of "chopping and changing" according to how many people are in each house. But its as well to check.

In my (unadopted) road its laid down as proportions per house for road maintenance (not per person) and that means the house with largest number of occupants gets off more cheaply per person and other houses (with just one person in) pay more per person. But I can see that its fair for all houses to pay an equal proportion - though the largest household are saving money each at my expense (as I could, in theory, move a partner in with me and have them cover half my share).

The plus side of things being "per house" is that a house with more occupants in than mine doesn't get extra "voting power" with decisions (as their house still only carries one "vote" worth of say - the same as my house does). So they cant use the fact of being a family to "outvote" single me.

paddy's_mum

I suggest that nobody in their right mind would start a dispute over a septic tank because to do so cripples both households.

If the tank doesn't get dealt with properly, the trouble 'comes back' (up the pipes!) to haunt you.

This really is one of those shoot-yourself-in-the-foot arrangements so it wouldn't put me off too badly.

AdrianC

A lot of rural properties have tanks. If you don't like the idea of a tank, then cross all properties that aren't on mains drainage off straight away.

So it comes back to the usual question of sharing a part of the property with a neighbour - be it tank, access, a boundary or whatever.

At least with a tank, it's not the end of the world (albeit not cheap) to install a dedicated one, if you have the space.

downshifter

Not that unusual in a rural area, I've lived in a house where the tank is shared with a neighbour. I think the landlord just emptied it, (ie just poured it over his fields!!) I never paid any extra. I also know a whole village which shares a tank. Never heard of a dispute, I think they just divvy up the payment and pay per household.

At the moment I have one all of my own, such luxury. Last time I paid for emptying it was about £150, that about 3 years ago. It wouldn't put me off in a million years, this amount is peanuts, even if you have to pay the whole whack yourself, rather than fall out with neighbours. Location of the house is everything, anything else can be changed. If not laid down in any of the documents, tea and cake will solve any issues.

Why not find out what the previous owners arranged and continue like this?

teffers

Thanks everyone for your replies. I really appreciate them.

I share Joe's concern about the negotiations with any present or possbile future neighbours - can I just rely on the hope that they're all reasonable ? (like me ) - life has taught me to be wary of that assumption.

@ moneystooshort - good points about occupancy - My solicitor has asked for more information on how it's maintained.

@ paddys mum - That would make sense to me too, but during my search for information on the interworrynet I've seen posts from people who's 'shared' tank partner isn't having an issue, possible due to the land being slightly higher etc, who refuse to pay as it's not affecting them.

Then you can have the situation that the other household doesn't take any care in what they flush - causing the system to fail to be effective - it's then a cost factor for me more often than it should be.

It seems that house buying is just a very expensive question an answer, with each 'missed' question costing hundreds of £s

It's my mistake I guess for not asking the question,"where does the !!!! go ?" at the first viewing

@Adrian - That's also a consideration. I just simply didn't take the rural = septic tank ( or worse, shared) into consideration - my fault entirely. Ideally, the most I would want to share with a neighbour is a boundary so having a thing I need to have constant agreement with that has the potention to cos £s is concerning for me.

@downshifter - And that is exactly my other side of the decision process Am I just worrying (risk averse) about somethig that is just part of rural life. I have a sit down with the Vendor tomorrow (who has been great) so I can ask all the information about the current set up then.

Thanks again everyone.

AdrianC

teffers wrote: »

It's my mistake I guess for not asking the question,"where does the !!!! go ?" at the first viewing

The property details will tell you what mains services the property is on. You don't even need ask.

Depending on where you are, anything more than electricity can't be taken for granted. We looked at a place yesterday which only had mains electricity - everything else was private. Mains water was in the road outside, but the house wasn't connected.

First time I've ever seen a "feature" made of the tank lid - surrounded by hexagonal paving slabs, like a big concrete daisy in the middle of the lawn... Most are buried under a bush to try to hide them...

teffers

AdrianC wrote: »

The property details will tell you what mains services the property is on. You don't even need ask.

Depending on where you are, anything more than electricity can't be taken for granted. We looked at a place yesterday which only had mains electricity - everything else was private. Mains water was in the road outside, but the house wasn't connected.

First time I've ever seen a "feature" made of the tank lid - surrounded by hexagonal paving slabs, like a big concrete daisy in the middle of the lawn... Most are buried under a bush to try to hide them...

The first indication that there wasn't any mains sewerage connection was the property information questionaire forwarded to me by my solicitor. No mention, either way, on Rightmove or Teplio .

agrinnall

Some people will tell you that regular emptying is required, but I can say that the opposite is true. I lived for 10 years in a house that shared a septic tank with 5 other houses, and at no point in that time did it need to be emptied. Leave it alone and it will do what it needs to.

downshifter

Agree, hardly ever needs emptying. Also they're pretty forgiving, I use bleach etc despite all the advice on the 'interworrynet' (great word that!). I once lived in a row of terraced houses on mains drainage, they were all linked and one person used to put sanitary towels and wipes down, so we all ended up paying a fortune for drainarod or whassername to clear it out. Nobody ever admitted being the guilty one. Cost far more than a septic tank to fix.

It's part of rural ways, not better or worse - just different from urban life. A non-issue.