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wenlady77

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? CA

We closed on our house about 6 months ago. It was a foreclosure and I remember signing some sort of non-disclosure docs. The listing stated we had public sewer, when in fact there is a septic tank. We found this out from a neighbor when we were having the roof replaced about

Our Realtor had no idea, and has been real good in contacting the selling Realtor to get them to find an drain it, which they have done.

My question is though, what recourse do we have from here? We would never have bought the house if we knew it had a septic...And now we may have future maintenance costs, and I believe it also affects the value of the house.What is the name of your state?
 


seniorjudge

Senior Member
My question is, how could you possibly buy a house and not know it was not hooked up to a public sewer?

Didn't you ask for the prior utility bills?
 

wenlady77

Junior Member
The original listiing on the house said public sewer. I just looked at the home inspection and the appraisal. The inspection does not address the sewer at all and the appraisal states it has a public sewer.
 

VeronicaLodge

Senior Member
the inspection should have covered whether it had public sewer or septic.

and why would you have never bought it if you had known? what is wrong with having a septic tank/system? 2 out of my 4 houses had septic tanks, no problems or expense associated with them.
 

wenlady77

Junior Member
Well it didn't.:confused:

There is nothing wrong with it, if this is what we thought we were getting. We were looking for a house that was on public sewer, and wrongfully we did not get that. My main concern is the maintenance and now the value of the house, being that I noticed the appraisal is marked as public sewer
 

seniorjudge

Senior Member
Well it didn't.:confused:

There is nothing wrong with it, if this is what we thought we were getting. We were looking for a house that was on public sewer, and wrongfully we did not get that. My main concern is the maintenance and now the value of the house, being that I noticed the appraisal is marked as public sewer
Flush a pound or so of that septic tank stuff (it smells like bad yeast) in your toilet every month. It works wonders. I use it and have never had trouble one.

When you have a septic tank, there are cleanout traps sticking out of the ground. I guess you missed those? They are real obvious.
 

FarmerJ

Senior Member
There is nothing wrong with having a septic system , your house also has private well then too ?? All it means is that you need to learn how to take care of the septic system by not treating it as if it was city sewer where people dump every thing under the sun down the drains. Pay attention to how much bleach you use and other common household chems, DO not force food down the drains using the finger disposal method. If a non toilet paper product says its flushable do you really want to trust that ??? Ill bet your county might have a info pamphlet on how to maintain septic tank health and how to care for it. MANY university web sites have this info too. BTW just because a real estate listing says public water /sewer checking your city /county public works tap records at water dept is allways best. NOW that you have this home you should learn what your city/ county rules are for when property is required to hook into public systems. They might have a set rule for example requiring connection when a septic system or pvt well fail in a area where public water /sewer is already avail. Your only maint cost should be every now and then calling in a honeysucker to pump the solids out. I have two 500 gallon settling tanks it cost me 90.00 to have them pumped and I do it every 2 years for a household of 2 persons. Call some of the local honeysucker services to see if any had been at your property in the past, They can tell you how often they came out.
 

TheGeekess

Keeper of the Kraken
There is nothing wrong with having a septic system , your house also has private well then too ?? All it means is that you need to learn how to take care of the septic system by not treating it as if it was city sewer where people dump every thing under the sun down the drains. Pay attention to how much bleach you use and other common household chems, DO not force food down the drains using the finger disposal method. If a non toilet paper product says its flushable do you really want to trust that ??? Ill bet your county might have a info pamphlet on how to maintain septic tank health and how to care for it. MANY university web sites have this info too. BTW just because a real estate listing says public water /sewer checking your city /county public works tap records at water dept is allways best. NOW that you have this home you should learn what your city/ county rules are for when property is required to hook into public systems. They might have a set rule for example requiring connection when a septic system or pvt well fail in a area where public water /sewer is already avail. Your only maint cost should be every now and then calling in a honeysucker to pump the solids out. I have two 500 gallon settling tanks it cost me 90.00 to have them pumped and I do it every 2 years for a household of 2 persons. Call some of the local honeysucker services to see if any had been at your property in the past, They can tell you how often they came out.
Don't forget the quarterly bacteria addition with Rid-x® Treatment. :p
 

FlyingRon

Senior Member
RID-X is unnecessary if your system is properly sized and you don't dump spurious stuff into your waste water. I've lived on septic for decades. Every five years or so you pump out the tank, but other than that it's relatively self maintaining.
 

seniorjudge

Senior Member
RID-X is unnecessary if your system is properly sized and you don't dump spurious stuff into your waste water. I've lived on septic for decades. Every five years or so you pump out the tank, but other than that it's relatively self maintaining.
If you use Rid-x®, you do not need to pump.

(I do not own stock in that company.)
 

nextwife

Senior Member
My question is, how could you possibly buy a house and not know it was not hooked up to a public sewer?

Didn't you ask for the prior utility bills?
Around here, the sewer and water charges are always prorated on the closing statement and the bills provided to buyer, along with copies of the municipal tax status letters and the municipal letters that state special assessment status and if any future work is planned or pending that will result in a special assessment. Oh yeah, and the status letter of any HOA fees/special assessments..
 

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