sheltieflint
Junior Member
What is the name of your state? New Hampshire. Sorry for the length but I think giving the whole story is very important... Posted in Construction Law as well, not sure which it falls into.
We had our house built and moved in Jan 2000. In Aug 2004 our leach field failed. It was determined by a consultant that I hired that it failed due to lack of oxygen. It was also determined that the design plans were bad because the designer read the test pit wrong and the field was put into the water table (but upon asking around I was told that the state does approve plans in the water table sometimes and that fact was confirmed by the state) Given this information that I aquired from various sources, I do not feel that even though the design was poor, that water table had anything to do with the system failing. At the time these plans were drawn, these "geo-flow" systems were not required to be vented. However, VERY shortly after our plans were approved, venting was required on them. No one contacted us to tell us of anything like this.
At the time of failure we contacted the contractor who had the installer come out and they concluded that they did everything right and according to the plans. Feeling extremely out of our league, we then paid over $2,000 and had two outside septic designers as well as a rep from the leach field tube manufacturer come and check it out because we were hearing "rumors" that these tubes were crap and don't last. Her investigation revealed lack of oxygen due to non-venting and too much cover. We were hoping at maximum to have what is called a "repair-in-kind" done so that we didn't have to start from scratch, yet her recommendation was to do a complete re-design of the system with a total different kind of system due to the water table issue.
It seems that I have a complicated matter that no one claims responsibility for. I have been told that it would cost me more to fight it in court than it would cost to just shut-up and pay to have it re-done. The end result is that I have a 4 year old house needing to have a new septic system designed over again and installed (to the tune of $10-12k and I must mention that it will be required to be totally different due to the water table, which means a large HUMP in the back yard - the only flat space I have for my kids to play). Everyone is throwing up their hands and saying, not their fault, including the state sub-sytems department who approved the plans, the city inspector who must witness the test pit and inspect the system prior to covering, the contractor who says he installed it according to "the plan" yet there is more cover on it than was specified on the plans, the manufacturer who says the tubes they design have no problems (yet everyone we talked to in the septic field - including the state person who off the record told us they are crap). When consultants came in to help us, they left our gate improperly closed causing two of my dogs to get out and be hit and killed by cars, not to mention the stress that I had for the entire rest of the summer (which was ruined) worrying about how I was going to come up with that much money. It was bad. We temporarily fixed it ourselves due to money shortage by airing out the tubes for a week and then installing vents in the system. But we know this is just a temporary fix. I even called a few lawyers at the time and just got so overwhelmed by the facts people were throwing at me that I just crawled under a rock and gave up. I felt beaten down and thought that it was a lost cause, but now that my head is clearing and issues are rising again, I would like to fight for my rights in the matter. Any advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated. I don't want to hit a dead end again. Shouldn't I be protected by the laws here?
We had our house built and moved in Jan 2000. In Aug 2004 our leach field failed. It was determined by a consultant that I hired that it failed due to lack of oxygen. It was also determined that the design plans were bad because the designer read the test pit wrong and the field was put into the water table (but upon asking around I was told that the state does approve plans in the water table sometimes and that fact was confirmed by the state) Given this information that I aquired from various sources, I do not feel that even though the design was poor, that water table had anything to do with the system failing. At the time these plans were drawn, these "geo-flow" systems were not required to be vented. However, VERY shortly after our plans were approved, venting was required on them. No one contacted us to tell us of anything like this.
At the time of failure we contacted the contractor who had the installer come out and they concluded that they did everything right and according to the plans. Feeling extremely out of our league, we then paid over $2,000 and had two outside septic designers as well as a rep from the leach field tube manufacturer come and check it out because we were hearing "rumors" that these tubes were crap and don't last. Her investigation revealed lack of oxygen due to non-venting and too much cover. We were hoping at maximum to have what is called a "repair-in-kind" done so that we didn't have to start from scratch, yet her recommendation was to do a complete re-design of the system with a total different kind of system due to the water table issue.
It seems that I have a complicated matter that no one claims responsibility for. I have been told that it would cost me more to fight it in court than it would cost to just shut-up and pay to have it re-done. The end result is that I have a 4 year old house needing to have a new septic system designed over again and installed (to the tune of $10-12k and I must mention that it will be required to be totally different due to the water table, which means a large HUMP in the back yard - the only flat space I have for my kids to play). Everyone is throwing up their hands and saying, not their fault, including the state sub-sytems department who approved the plans, the city inspector who must witness the test pit and inspect the system prior to covering, the contractor who says he installed it according to "the plan" yet there is more cover on it than was specified on the plans, the manufacturer who says the tubes they design have no problems (yet everyone we talked to in the septic field - including the state person who off the record told us they are crap). When consultants came in to help us, they left our gate improperly closed causing two of my dogs to get out and be hit and killed by cars, not to mention the stress that I had for the entire rest of the summer (which was ruined) worrying about how I was going to come up with that much money. It was bad. We temporarily fixed it ourselves due to money shortage by airing out the tubes for a week and then installing vents in the system. But we know this is just a temporary fix. I even called a few lawyers at the time and just got so overwhelmed by the facts people were throwing at me that I just crawled under a rock and gave up. I felt beaten down and thought that it was a lost cause, but now that my head is clearing and issues are rising again, I would like to fight for my rights in the matter. Any advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated. I don't want to hit a dead end again. Shouldn't I be protected by the laws here?
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