Septic tank on neighboring land

Monbretia said:
Farmer either wants to sell that bit of land or wants to buy house themselves for half nothing due to the tank problem or alternatively they could just not want a neighbour!
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I've seen issues as well where the land has passed to the next generation who can have very different attitudes to allowing something like this on their land. I wouldn't blame anyone for not wanting someone else's effluent treatment system on my property. You might accommodate a friend, but not a complete stranger.
 
+1

I placed a booking deposit on a site a few years ago and when we did a site survey, the Engineer identified a sewer pipe coming from the neighbour’s house through the site into the mains. It was enough for us to pull out of the sale. (Together with time pressures - the neighbour wasn’t minded to enter into formalising the arrangement through a formal deed, even though he was effectively trespassing on the land. And the fact that the sewer pipe restricted where on the site we could build).

I wasn’t overly gone on the idea of having to deal with the neighbour’s sewage if something went wrong down the line.
 
Reactions: Leo
If the landowner wants money to buy the land we would be absolutely up for talking about it. If that was an option we would see that as a win win situation. I cant see him wanting to buy the land the house is on as its such a tiny plot it would be worthless to him considering how many hectares he already owns.
We are trying to make contact now with this landowner to see if we can have some sort of talk about it before we decide on whether its worth it all or not.
If he point blank refuses we will do a forest gump on it as someone said earlier
 
Have you spoken to anyone who can tell you whether you have any hope of getting planning permission to bring this back into use, or how much that might cost? You'll need to renovate to the current building regs with all the cost that will entail.

The significant grants announced recently to bring derelict properties back into use deliberately exclude one-off rural houses as authorities seek to restrict those.

If the landowner is willing to sell a plot, make sure you confirm the above before you go any further. Next step would be having someone inspect the land and assess suitability for a treatment system, as you'll need to ensure you purchase enough land from the farmer for any percolation area required. It is not possible to get permission on all sites for a treatment system, drainage conditions and local waterways have to be assessed.
 
Are you sure that the folio is correct? Is there a clear boundary. There may be issues with folio. From selling my own house in rural ireland there was an issue that I had to get resolved regarding folio.
 
You can put in a non leeching tank and pump it similar to a boat. If its just a weekend getaway then that would work fine. Basically carry on using the septic tank and if theres an issue legal route /pay him off worst case put in a tank. The price would be the main thing if you can create a big hoooh hah now and the owner thinks its worthless then you could get more off. The planning is protected via retention and the structure being in place 6 or 7 years. The landowner is playing the game of hedgmony and although the septic tank is worthless to him he would like to aggregate the cottage for peanuts into his portfolio. If you buy it anyway his game is up.
Theoretically and you would have to check this out, in theory you could legally put in a tank that doesnt leach this isnt a septic tank so all ok with environment department, then you could seperately quite possibly legally pump this if its a removable pump onto your 'vegatable' patch but again you would have to ask a solicitor to review the laws. If you have your neighbour later then Im sure he will 'allow' you to use the septic tank on his land for a fee.
 
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Bur the septic tank is on the farmer's land, its basically his property now. There is nothing stopping him collapsing the tank and just filling it in. So this option of just continuing to use the tank if it still operates won't work.

If the tank is still operational but maybe leaching into a drain as many septics are pollution sources, then the farmer could be blamed for this. As it is many polluting septic tanks in rural areas are categorised as agricultural pollution because the council can't distinguish between the two. Therefore all pollution in rural areas is unfairly categorised as agricultural. Therefore I bet the farmer will not allow the septic tank to be used again for all the above reasons
 
lomber said:
You can put in a non leeching tank and pump it similar to a boat. If its just a weekend getaway then that would work fine. Basically carry on using the septic tank and if theres an issue legal route /pay him off worst case put in a tank.
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Is there such a system that complies with the current regs?
lomber said:
The planning is protected via retention and the structure being in place 6 or 7 years.
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If the property is now derelict as the OP stated, any previous planning is effectively null and void, and a new planning application will be required to bring it back into use.


I don't think that's a runner either. Firstly, the land owners explicit consent will be required to carry out any works on their land such as replacing the tank. Then, there are strict rules on pumping and disposing of the contents of septic tanks. Farmers are only permitted to spread the sludge from their own system on their land, and there are a set of rules that apply in terms of the area needing to be a minimum of 100m from any dwelling house, 50m from any well, etc., etc....
 
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