septic tank on my electric bill

smitherd

Our property is 1 of 4 who share a septic tank. It is in our garden & runs off our electricity supply.
We have to work out quarterly how much the tank has used & send a bill to our neighbours. This isn't ideal as the do not straight away & we have to chase up.

Is there a way we can set it up so a new meter can be installed & the bill be split 4 ways?
How much would this cost?

zippychick

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missbiggles1

Do you mean electricity supply or have you put that by mistake?

Carrot007

Not quite sure what you are after.

I suspect you want a new electric supply and meter.

Expect over a £1000 for that. And whatever costs it takes to build somewhere for the meter to go.

And then you are unlikely to get 4 people on the bill and you would still all be resonsible for 100% of the bill meaning they would chase whoever is most likely to pay.

Other option is to have a sub meter so the tank can be measured on it's own. Fairly simple and much cheaper.

Tigsteroonie

I lived in a house with a septic tank. I don't remember it having an electricity supply ...

missbiggles1

Tigsteroonie wrote: »

I lived in a house with a septic tank. I don't remember it having an electricity supply ...

Me neither, that's why I asked.

tim9966

Ours uses about 50kwh a month if that helps.

The problem will then be one household might only have 2 people, and another 6, so that won't all agree to pay a 1/4 share each.

Robin9

50 kWh is about £5 a month.

Is it worth arguing about ?

Cardew

tim9966 wrote: »

Ours uses about 50kwh a month if that helps.

The problem will then be one household might only have 2 people, and another 6, so that won't all agree to pay a 1/4 share each.

Likewise I wasn't aware septic tanks had an electricity supply. Presumably you have some sort of pump to help the sewerage/waste water reach the tank??

Could you not get one of those power monitors that measure consumption of individual appliances?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Plug-In-Power-and-Energy-Monitor/dp/B000Q7PJGW

Make sure that you get one that doesn't re-set if there is a power outage.

tim9966

Ours (well at the one at my parents house) was fitted about 2012 and yes has a pump which then pumps the treated water into a nearby stream, we have a licence from the environment agency to allow this to happen.

It's more a very mini sewage works than septic tank. The old tank it replaced was just gravity fed.

Another problem will be the pump only turns on as and when needed, so with 4 houses connected will use more than ours which is just connected to one house.

footyguy

smitherd wrote: »

Our property is 1 of 4 who share a septic tank. It is in our garden & runs off our electricity supply.
We have to work out quarterly how much the tank has used & send a bill to our neighbours. This isn't ideal as the do not straight away & we have to chase up.

Is there a way we can set it up so a new meter can be installed & the bill be split 4 ways?
How much would this cost?

The only way you could get seperate electric bills is to have seperate supplies and meters. That'll be expensive.

And you presumably need seperate septic tanks too ... even more expense.

So why not leave the electric supplies as they are and just get seperate septic tanks? (each run off each houses own, existing electricity supply)

Who got the septic trank installed in the first place? Or was it there when you bought the property? (in which case what did your solicitor have to say about the arrangements?)
I would suggest it'll be a nightmare to ever sell the property and no one would mortgage it (or the 3 neighbours) in the current circumstances.

So a trip to your solicitor may well be the best way forward in any event.

Edit: Brand new user.
Join Date: 26-08-2016
First posted: Yesterday 12:09 AM
Last Activity: Yesterday 12:10 AM