Who pays to empty septic tank? Landlord or tenant?

Gilead

If not mentioned explicitly in the contract I would think it was LL responsibility. If it is in contract, was it emptied immediately prior to them moving in - if not, how long before they moved in was it emptied i.e. you would need to pro rata their contribution.

It sounds like you didn't consider it prior to leasing, so you should pay it, and amend the contract at renewal.

macman

Did you empty it before the tenants occupied the property?

AylesburyDuck

Are they good tenants who pay rent on time, and dont hassle you with stupid requests ect, because to my mind, if they are,and even if legally you could wriggle out of it, id be (as its your mistake for not even thinking of it) paying that myself. Whats 150 quid every 2 years compared to upsetting the apple cart and your next tenants (if they leave) being the tenants from hell.
If they are actually the tenants from hell.............

Naf

wesleyad wrote: »

I'd say how often it needs emptied also comes into it (I have no idea how often this is).

If it's once a year then it seems reasonable that tenant pays, but say it's once every few years then you could end with situation of asking tenant to pay to empty previous tenants waste.

davidmcn wrote: »

This blog from Safe Deposits Scotland may be helpful:

http://www.safedepositsscotland.com/blog-admin/2016/02/29/february-adjudication-digest-plumbing-the-depths/

This was exactly my first thought.

Are they at least aware that there is a tank and that it is time to get it done?

ProDave

Yes I probably will just pay it and learn from the experience. It just seems "wrong" that they would pay if it were on mains drainage so you would think it would normally expect it to be the tenants responsibility.

At least if I organise it and pay, I know it's done, an no chance of the tenant "forgetting" to get it done and ending up with other problems.

need_an_answer

What was "wrong" was the fact you forgot about the tank when sorting out the rental of the property.

Maybe if you feel that the tenant in future is likely to "forget" you could add £6.25 to the monthly rental payment to cover the cost!

shortcrust

Perhaps not very MSE of me, but for the sake of happy tenants I wouldn't twice about absorbing a cost of 75 quid a year for something like that.

agrinnall

I've said this in previous threads, but the septic tank serving 6 properties where I lived was not emptied at all in the 10 years that I was there, so I really don't understand why other people seem to feel they need to be emptied every year or two.

pinklady21

Our septic tank has not been emptied in the 7 years we have lived here. We were advised to leave it alone, as it is working fine. Every time it is emptied, the microbes take a while to rebalance and do their job, apparently.
Ours is a fairly elderly brick built chamber tank, rather than a modern plastic one, which may be a different kettle of microbes.
Agree with others, if the agreement is silent, then the landlord will pay. However nothing stopping you increasing the rent to cover the cost of it, assuming you don't mind hacking off your tenant a bit!

martindow

The problem is that if you let the solids build up so high that they carry over to block pipes in the leach field the costs of putting that right far exceed the costs of an occasional pump out.

Some old tanks are enormous so don't need very frequent emptying and others probably leak out through cracks. Modern fibreglass septic tanks need to be emptied fairly often.