Sewers

[ross2233]

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? I live in Hamilton, Ohio. Our community recently had contractors install sewer lines through our community. Not everyone in our community had need of sewers but we are paying the bill. Ours is approx $4500. just to let them destroy and take 2 feet of our property line along the road. Now we are suppose to be hooking up to the sewers. As I said not all of us needed them. We had our system updated with new leach lines approx 15 years ago and have the septic pumped every 3-4 years as advised by the installer. We have a lot size of 100x150 and can redo the lines again if need be. Are we required by law to hook up to these sewers since they are available. They have a cut off of 7/1/05 to get a discount of 1900. off the permit to hook up, but we really don't want to hook up. We just don't want to be caught later with paying more if they come back and say you have to hook up. It's the law.
ross2233

 

[John Se]

Sewer Good, Septic Bad

so what's your question cheapskate. Dont forget your waste problems will be over, and a 15 year old leach field is about at the end of its life. Septic tank can leak and spoil the ground water. Can you say E-Coli. If you sell a sewer is worth more than an old and soon to fail septic system! And if you dont hook up you will have to sell a deficient house.

 

[Some Random Guy]

And just try waiting until your septic fails and you need major repairs or a replacement. Then you will find out that any septic changes are no longer permitted because your lot is now "too small" to have a septic since the community now specifies 2 arce minimums for septic systems. Then you will have to rush and get connected and pay full price.

 

[ross2233]

Not a CHEAPSKATE!!!!!

I'm not a cheapscate. I invest tons of money in my property. Where we live we have layers of rock and gravel which water filters through before it hits the underground water. We are a community of gravel pits. My property is already worth far more than any other in our immediate area. We are always improving which is why we already cleaned up a mess by updating our system 12 years ago. My daughter just informed me it wasn't that long ago. We live 3 blocks away from an area that the homes are valued a bit more than ours and they have no sewers and don't plan on installing the sewers. They installed them in a low to medium income neighborhood, no body here {except us} has maintained their septic systems. I think you should know a little more about the person before you attack them. We are highly respected in our community, our home is one given much notice, our yard is kept up, we already will never get out of our house what we've put into it.

 

[John Se]

Geeze! your wound up!

Have you tried decaf? But seriously what was your question? or did you just want to bitch. Dont take cheapskate personally....I never guessed you were so sensitive and serious, my most humble apologies. But still Sewers good Septic BAD. Septic systems are really only a last resort where sewer is not available. So if your not painfully frugal and short sighted (it will never get cheaper) then write the check, problem solved. I have been told "you have to choose your battles". Plus random guy had some good points. You really have to think that the cities really dont care about YOU since you are obviously not a problem, the trouble always comes after you convey the house to some other party. Then the trouble starts.

 

[John Se]

Cheapskate is a term of endearment

It's the club I belong in (sometimes)

 

[ross2233]

In our area the normal lot sizes are 25x50 Ours in 100 deep by 150 down the front. You only need 100 feet of leach lines and we do. Septics only go bad if you don't maintain them. When you let the waste wash out into the leach lines it will definitly go bad. If you pump them reguarly, you will not have this problem. The tank itself is inspected at the time it is pumped and it has no problems. I am not polluting the enviroment. My house was built in 1955, we are not permitted to put in dry wells, which is what we did have, but we are permitted to replace septic tanks. If my system would be bad enough to completly abate in the future, the overall cost of hooking up to the existing sewers would be comparable to replacing the septic tank and the leach bed. I am knowledgeable about all this. I wish my lawyer friend Hugh Holbrock was still alive, then I could get straight answers to my questions. I didn't get on here to recieve abuse and reprimands, I only wanted to know if by law I had to hook up. If I do, I will. As far as writing the check and paying for it, I wish I just had approx $10,000 just laying around. If I did I'd be out there buying that new car I want. Money isn't the biggest problem It's like I said we have kept our property up. We've livid here 26 years. They would tear up my concrete driveway, take out a 100+ year old tree, then tear out part of my patio to install this sewer line. It would totally mess up my property. The tree is a center focal point off the side of my driveway. It's about 75ft tall. If I really thought I was damaging the enviroment or my neighbors I would jump at fixing the problem, but I know I'm not. I don't just want to bitch, I want an answer, I've already tried asking different people at the time my street had 50 foot trenches going through it and I recieved a different answer from everyone. The whole reason we got sewers is because the lady who started this lives on a 25x25 lot and could not fix her problem. She petitioned and got lawyers involved and first got us all on city water and then went to sewers. I did hook up to the water, but I also kept my well. Also we are not getting a special price for hooking up. We have to hire a contractor that is getting rich in my neighborhood, he tells us what the estimate will be, then if you have no choice you say ok. The only cut we are getting is if we get our permit now. It'll save us $1900. We are most likely going to go ahead and get the permit. The contractor said it's good for a year or more. They can't put us on a time limit, there's too many homes.
Once again, all complaints put aside, by law do I have to hook up?
ross2233

 

[John Se]

have you talked to the city?

cities and counties can do it different ways, You will probalby get a sewer bill with you water bill whether you hook up or not, so you will be paying for the service. I have heard of some areas where they force you to hook up but its really all about getting the money for the sewage plant. So what did the city/county say and how did they notify you or inform you of the project. You said 4500 previously was that an assessment or the cost to run new lines to the main line?

 

[Warped]

I'm in a similar situation except in my case, the city didn't run the sewer pipe all the way to the front of my rental property. It stops about 100' short. My rental property is the last house at the edge of an overpass. Now I'm faced with either repairing ($4-6k) or potentially replacing the septic system ($10-15k) or paying $10-12k to hook up to the city sewer system. This is IF the city will allow me to get the septic system repaired or replaced. For me, it's a no-brainer. I'm going to connect to the city system!

Septic systems, under the best maintenance and conditions last a maximum of about 20 years. The city sewer system lasts a lifetime and it's their responsibility to fix everything from the right-of-way on. My advice would be to take advantage of the $1900 discount while you can and hook up to the city provided sewer system. Also, with 175' frontage (is that a word?) you should be able to choose a better path for the pipe, thus saving your patio, tree and driveway. Good luck to ya!

 

[ross2233]

They laid access pipes when they installed the main line. The line going down the front of my 150' lot is what is costing me $4500. That includes nothing for me. I now have to hire a contractor to come in and run the line from my house to the street. The cost of a permit just to hook my house line to their line is $1940. I am going to get a permit for the discount fee of $40. then I'm going to wait and see how long this permit is good for. I have to run the line along side the driveway and to the side of my house since that is where the access line is and that is also where my main line exits my house going to my backyard. It had to be set up that way, or have a sewer line traveling through my basement to try and go out the front. I have tried to talk to the city, they never return phone calls. They are always away from their desk when I call, and I wait and wait for a call that never comes. I did talk to the EPA guy over looking the installation of the sewers while it was going on, he said he didn't think anyone but the ones having problems were going to hook up. He didn't know if we could be forced to or not. So I have tried to talk to the right people but they wont talk to me. I haven't given them an attitude or anything yet either. That's why I descided to try this forum. They did help me with a question a while back and I thought I could be helped again. If you livid in our area you would understand more of what I am talking about. This whole country area is on septics. The only ones not are the new houses being built and the people who live near the new housing developments that were in between the sewage plant and the housing development. When they put the water in they were concerned with people being able to pay for the installation of it. We actually got it put in for free. With the sewers they are not doing anything but offering low interest loans and tapping the $4500 fee onto our real estate taxes for 40 years. I hope to pay it off before that. I will be paying $9000 dollars with the interest they are charging if I go 40 years. I don't think I can be helped here, but I just wanted to let you know more of the specifics. Our income is only $50000. per year. With a budget we do well, but things like this make it extremely hard. My husband is hoping to retire in a few years, but will have to use some of his 401k to pay for this. With the stock market where it is, I don't think he will retire for a long time. We aren't poor. We are very involved with our kids and their sports, which are extremely espensive. I don't have a credit card debt. We live within our means and this is a very expensive, unplanned, undesired extra.