Septic tank issues

JessEast

I've just had my house sale fall through due to issues with my septic tank. I'm in a old property that has an old septic tank installed years ago, and now non compliant.  It doesn't pollute, not near any waterways or boreholes etc. Tank is undersized. I have had 3 separate contractors, quoted between £10-£30k, but others saying its not possible. I gave a large garden but apparently not large enough.
I am lost in the technical terms and different advice, which has made my buyers pull out. Help.

NSG666

You say the current septic tank is non compliant but does this mean that there is a problem meaning that you need to do something with it? E.g. unless your house has just been re-wired it is unlikely to be to the latest regulations but that does not mean to say that you need to bring them up to the current regulations.

What do the 3 quotes you have suggest is done and what reason did others give saying it wasn't possible. 

Section62

JessEast said:

...not near any waterways or boreholes etc. Tank is undersized. I have had 3 separate contractors, quoted between £10-£30k, but others saying its not possible. I gave a large garden but apparently not large enough.

Are there definitely no watercourses nearby?  Ditches (open or piped)?

If not, then it means you will need to rely on soakaways/drainage fields contained within your property boundary, or enter into a legal agreement with a neighbouring property owner to allow you to drain onto their land.

Do you have any neighbours, or are you surrounded by fields? 

AdrianC

It's eminently possible, and nowhere near as expensive as people think.

We had an ancient septic tank replaced last year with a Marsh Ensign Ultra treatment plant.
https://marshindustries.co.uk/products/ensign-ultra-sewage-treatment-plants/

The 6-person tank cost about £2.5k to buy from our local builder's merchant...
https://www.drainagesuperstore.co.uk/product/sewage-treatment-plant-6-person-domestic-marsh-ensign-ultra.html
...and installing it was a couple of days for a couple of local groundworks guys with diggers etc.

The drainage field is replaced by a clean water outlet - the outflow is allegedly potable (I do not intend to test this claim), and the total ground space required is less than a traditional septic tank. It just needed a normal 230v cable providing to the air pump.

Section62

AdrianC said:

The drainage field is replaced by a clean water outlet - the outflow is allegedly potable...

It's probably true, but I wouldn't want to test the claim either.

The problem appears (from the first post) to be the lack of somewhere for the clean water to be discharged into - if there are no watercourses etc then the treatment plant has nowhere to discharge to - without relying on a soakaway/drainage field.

This could be why the contractors are saying there isn't enough space, not that there is a lack of space to install the tank/plant itself.

We need some more details from the OP.

Slithery

NSG666 said:

You say the current septic tank is non compliant but does this mean that there is a problem meaning that you need to do something with it?

Yes, it does. All septic tanks needed to be brought up to current regulations by 2020.

ProDave

I thought the only issue with septic tanks was if they discharged into a watercourse, in which case they should have been upgraded 18 months ago.  If it is discharging to land drainage, then there is no need to upgrade them.

I am curious to know just who said it needs upgrading and exactly what he said it does not comply with.

I think you need a proper drainage surveyor, and if he can establish it is not discharging to a watercourse he should be able to verify it is okay for continued use.

youth_leader

So sorry to read this. My house was semi detached built in 1847, and I shared the septic tank with my neighbours.  The tank was on their land, and the soak away was on their neighbour's land, which had previously been the orchards.  We both had a dispute with the neighbour over it unfortunately as he'd damaged it getting his drive done, which I had to declare.

JessEast

Thanks for all the comments.  It's a minefield.  I find it hard to believe that with a reasonably large garden I can't fit in a new treatment plant or a workable solution to meet regs. There must be a lot of properties with far less garden than mine with an old septic tank, who have found a solution. 
I have another person coming tomorrow to look at it. 
After 15 years here, I'm feeling like I should have moved 5 years ago

Section62

ProDave said:

I thought the only issue with septic tanks was if they discharged into a watercourse, in which case they should have been upgraded 18 months ago.

It hasn't been lawful to discharge a septic tank directly into a watercourse since at least the 1970's, possibly long before that.

Treatment plants of the type AdrianC linked to were developed to improve the final water quality of septic tank systems to a level where consent to discharge to a watercourse could then be obtained. Often it was more economic (and less disruptive) to buy a system of that kind rather than replacing a failed drainage field.

canaldumidi

Sale of a property is a regulatory trigger to make the tank compliant. Bit like compulsory1st registration when a sale takes place.

With 'a large garden' I find it hard to believe there's not space for a drainage field for the outflow from a treatment plant, which does not eed to be nearly as large a a septic tank drainage field.

Who are you getting these quotes /advice from?

Is there not a road drain nearby?