Flush & Forget
By Jim Palmer Jr.

In recent months I have had several clients who have had the rude awakening of having to replace all or part of a septic system.  This can be a very expensive undertaking ($10,000 - $30,000)! That sticker shock can be quite sobering, especially since the discovery of such problems usually occurs just prior to a closing and sellers have rarely budgeted for such a hefty expense.

Even savvy country folks seem to flush and forget about the maintenance of their “mini-sewage treatment system” or septic system.  The nasty sewage just goes away and is out of sight and out of mind.  Most septic systems under normal usage should be pumped every 2 or 3 years, but such maintenance rarely happens.  This pumping action usually assures that solids cannot overflow baffles and invade the drain field, which is typically the culprit when it comes to system failure.   Because of current regulations, some failed older systems must be replaced with more expense pressurized systems because of soil types and/or ground water.

In a normal rural real estate transaction, the septic tank is pumped and certified by a pump specialist to be “in working order and readily accepting affluent”.  When the pumper cannot certify that it is currently in working order, the certificate usually says “slowing accepting affluent”, or “not accepting affluent.”  That means that the soil in the drain field has become so plugged with bio-mat that it can  no longer adequately filter the affluent.  In such cases the seller must replace and relocate the existing drain field at their expense.  Since the sales price has been negotiated by that point in the transaction, this expense is normally deducted from the seller’s bottom line.

While this is a bitter pill to swallow for most sellers in this situation, it is actually just the cost of deferred maintenance that has finally caught up with the seller.  Since this is a major system of the property, the seller has the burden of making sure it is functioning like it should, sort of like the brakes on a car.  Depending upon the difficulty of the job, the cost of pumping a system, including digging, can range from $500 - $1,000, which is small potatoes compared with replacing a whole system.  When this type of situation occurs prior to a closing, the sale usually gets postponed because most lenders won’t fund until the problem is resolved.