Developer wants to buy us out of our septic tank seepage right on their land.

kbj2010

Emptied every 2yrs £140 £4 a month electric 

The system installed has a lifespan of 40-50yrs.

The current waste treatment plant seeps on to part of our neighbours garden. 

Emmia

kbj2010 said:

Emmia said:

OP what exactly is your objection to being connected to a sewer?

I don't have a problem with being connected to the mains and it might be something we discuss. 

Our deeds give us the right to share and have access to the ST on our neighbours garden. So legally our neighbour (current or future) cannot stop us from using it. 

So you're being bloody minded - "I have the right to use the ST on my neighbour's land, so I will", even though you both potentially have the option to be connected to mains sewerage. 

Have you asked the developer if they will connect you in return for not having the soak away?

kbj2010

Emmia said:

kbj2010 said:

Emmia said:

OP what exactly is your objection to being connected to a sewer?

I don't have a problem with being connected to the mains and it might be something we discuss. 

Our deeds give us the right to share and have access to the ST on our neighbours garden. So legally our neighbour (current or future) cannot stop us from using it. 

So you're being bloody minded - "I have the right to use the ST on my neighbour's land, so I will", even though you both potentially have the option to be connected to mains sewerage. 

Have you asked the developer if they will connect you in return for not having the soak away?

Sorry, I'm not sure why you're responding so aggressively about this. I came on to ask for advice. We've not yet asked if they'd be willing to connect us or discussed this option with our neighbour. No bloody mindedness at all! I'd ask you to scroll on unless you have constructive advice to give like other forum user have. 

kbj2010

Thanks to all those who gave supportive and friendly advice on this. We're going to contact the developer to see if connecting is an option 🤞🏼

BarelySentientAI

kbj2010 said:

Thanks to all those who gave supportive and friendly advice on this. We're going to contact the developer to see if connecting is an option 🤞🏼

I think you'll be able to make a much better decision if you know whether or not it is.

chrisw

BarelySentientAI said:

kbj2010 said:

Thanks to all those who gave supportive and friendly advice on this. We're going to contact the developer to see if connecting is an option 🤞🏼

I think you'll be able to make a much better decision if you know whether or not it is.

And go in hard, it sounds like you're in a very strong position holding all the cards. 

A connection to sewer will cost them a lot less than for you to do it as they already have the men and equipment on site.

Section62

kbj2010 said:

...

It would be quite an undertaking to connect us to the mains on the site with the distance the closest houses are. 

£10-15k and covering our legal cost was mentioned in our conversation, nothing about linking us to the mains, but we agreed to nothing and are seeking some legal advice atm. It would actually be easier to link our neighbour to the mains than just ourselves as both our houses drain to the same place right now, if we were going to go down that route. 

£15k buys a lot of 4" plastic drainage pipe... the digging to put it in is trivial when the developer has a blank canvas and groundworks plant on site already.  The developer might bite your hand off if you offer to be connected to their sewer in lieu of a cash payment.

However, that does depend on whether the levels work - if your property is lower than the development there might not be enough fall for a gravity system and the cost of installing (and running) a pumping station may mean you would be better of sticking with what you have.

The main question though is whether this development will have public mains drainage, or if it will have a private treatment system.  If the former, you'd then have to start paying sewerage charges to the local water company, which may cost you more than the existing arrangement you have. Water - particularly sewerage - bills are not likely to be going down, and with all the fuss about discharges to rivers we can all expect sharp increases in water bills in the near future.

If they will have a private system which is funded by a charge on the residents of the new development you could potentially negotiate to have the right of discharge without paying for it - but you wouldn't be able to opt out of public sewerage charges if the drainage is being adopted.

I'd also be wary about the possible use of this land as a biodiversity/wildlife area - you might have a right to install your leach field in the next 35 years, but if the land has become an area rich in biodiversity you might not get the consent you'd need to have it dug up to actually install it.

Noting you are reluctant to have your garden dug up, bear in mind that if the drainage on the development is adopted and becomes public then you could become subject to compulsory connection to the public sewer if the distance from the nearest public sewer (which could be closer than the nearest house) is less than 100 feet.  If you became subject to compulsory connection then not oly would your garden need to be dug up, you'd also be paying for that, and the whole of the connection to the public sewer.

Personally, I'd probably be inclined to ask the developer to bring their drainage (both foul and surface if possible) up to a chamber close to the property boundary, but not necessarily connect your foul water to it (yet). If the current system works and is economical to use then you may as well continue to use it, whilst retaining the option to discharge to the land across the boundary if the need arises in the future.

ThisIsWeird

kbj2010 said:

The right to seepage is from our garden btw (for a tank that doesn't exist), not our neighbours. The current ST on our neighbours garden has the right to seep on to land which isn't owned by the developers. 

Ah, I misunderstood - sorry.
So;
1) You have a modern TP already, and not a ST? It's shared and in your neighb's land?
2) Your right to 'seepage' on to this developer's land is currently for surface/ground water from your garden, and potentially from your own future TP? In which case, the developer doesn't currently have an 'issue' with seepage?
3) Your sewer passes through to your neighbour's plot which houses the TP? Your neighbour has a similar right to seepage over their boundary, but this is not the developer's land? So, no issue there for the developer either?
4) If/when you and your neighb ultimately connect to the mains sewer, the logical way to run this would most likely be as an extension from the current TP, so from the neighbour's land and out their boundary - a single shared sewer for you both.