Septic tank located outside boundary

Chiorino

Looking at a property, derelict and requiring complete refurbishment. All looking good until solicitor discovers the septic tank is outside the boundary. We would be putting in a new tank in any event so I would have thought the location of an old, non functioning tank would be irrelevant but the solicitor sees the current situation as a problem. Is it down to having to access anothers property to decommission the existing tank? Does anyone know why this might be as I can't get a straight answer out of the solicitor?

DeeJunFan

has the solicitor confirmed if there is any right of access. This things can be specified in the land registry deeds.

If they are not specified you could check about getting access specified before you go ahead with the purchase

Chiorino

DeeJunFan wrote: »

has the solicitor confirmed if there is any right of access. This things can be specified in the land registry deeds.

If they are not specified you could check about getting access specified before you go ahead with the purchase

No, solicitor has not mentioned this. He's a difficult guy to get information out of at all, I just thought access to the tank was the issue itself.

Arddon

i think you'll need a right of way to ensure you will always have access to your tank, regardless of your plans...as it stands now the house is using the septic tank

where is the tank in relation to the house, presumably the person selling the house also owns the land containing the tank, in which case it would be in their interest to give a right of way, or it would be a prerequisite to selling the house

as an aside, if you are renovating the existing house, ie not knocking it, would you not continue to use this tank rather than going down the route of new regulations etc

Chiorino

Arddon wrote: »

i think you'll need a right of way to ensure you will always have access to your tank, regardless of your plans...as it stands now the house is using the septic tank

where is the tank in relation to the house, presumably the person selling the house also owns the land containing the tank, in which case it would be in their interest to give a right of way, or it would be a prerequisite to selling the house

as an aside, if you are renovating the existing house, ie not knocking it, would you not continue to use this tank rather than going down the route of new regulations etc

The house hasn't been lived in for around 20 years. I doubt very much if the septic tank would still be up to standard. PP was granted to decommission and replace around 10 years ago but it was never acted on.

SuperS54

Is there sufficient space to put a tank within the existing boundaries? It may be that the tank was placed outside originally due to space and/or draining issues so any replacement may also need to be outside the boundary.

Chiorino

SuperS54 wrote: »

Is there sufficient space to put a tank within the existing boundaries? It may be that the tank was placed outside originally due to space and/or draining issues so any replacement may also need to be outside the boundary.

The property sits on over an acre so don't see this as an issue.

SuperS54

Well there's some reason someone decided to put it outside the boundaries of an already reasonably large site, soakage/drainage could be a culprit.

Chiorino

Latest update, I'm being told that the tank was effectively decommissioned a number of years ago, ie filled in completely and that according to a local architect, as far as planning is concerned, it is no longer an issue as far as we should be concerned. We simply put the new tank inside the boundary as we planned.

I get the feeling our solicitor (Dublin based) might not have come across something like this before as the architect says it's quite common in rural areas.

LK_Dave

Arddon wrote: »

i think you'll need a right of way to ensure you will always have access to your tank, regardless of your plans..

The correct term/right is Easement. Its different from a Right Of Way.

Sounds like the local architect is pointing you in the right direction. Best of luck OP.