If you are considering purchasing or selling a home that has a septic system on the property, you should know that there are some regulations and compliance issues that go along with real estate transactions involving septic systems.
In Minnesota, before there can be any sale, transfer, contract for deed or other land conveyance where there is a dwelling or a part of a land where a structure requires use of a septic system, the septic system must meet a certain set of guidelines.
Here is some information from a septic pumping service in Prior Lake, MN.
Septic system inspections before sales
If you’re considering selling or purchasing a home, you should make sure the septic system gets inspected by a person licensed to perform that task. The inspector will submit the results of the inspection to the environmental service department in the area for a thorough review. Depending on the findings, the property owner will either receive a certificate of compliance, meaning no further action is necessary and a sale can proceed, or a notice that the system does not comply with the standards for septic system quality, in one of several ways.
Here are the four different potential notices a property owner could receive upon completion of the septic system analysis:
- Certificate of compliance: This is the result a property owner wants to get after a septic system inspection. Receiving it means the septic system meets the state and county’s subsurface sewage treatment system standards and criteria.
- Non-conforming: The results here are a bit more complex. Under the law, this result means “the existing system has less than the equivalent of 30.6 inches but at least 12 inches of vertical separation between the bottom of the distribution area and saturated soil level or bedrock, or any system that discharges sewage into a seepage pit, dry well or leeching pit with at least 12 inches of vertical separation, or an individual sewage treatment system in use that are undersized relative to occupancy, or any system that does not meet required setbacks.”
- Non-compliant: The system does not meet the required operational, treatment and safety goals the state has put into place for septic systems.
- Threat to public health: If the inspection results indicate your septic system is an imminent threat to public health, this means the septic system is discharging into the ground surface, backing up into the actual structure of the system or posing another type of situation that prevents it from being safe for use.
A certificate of compliance is valid for three years, meaning homeowners do not have to sell immediately after having their septic system tested. A certificate of non-conformity is also valid for three years and does not require you to upgrade the system unless you add bedrooms to the home. A non-compliant certificate indicates a need for the system to be upgraded within a year if on a shore and two years otherwise. A system determined to be a threat to public health must be upgraded within 10 months.
For more information, contact Mike’s Septic & McKinley Sewer Services to discuss septic pumping service in Prior Lake, MN.