Septic Systems are designed differently depending on what Province or State you reside in, although a common element to designing a septic system is based on the amount of bedrooms that are located in a home. The general rule is each bedroom constitutes a hydraulic load or production of effluent since you are housing more individuals. Due to this the septic systems must be made larger or use an engineered system to ensure the effluent (lets say dirty water) has enough area to disperse into the ground and be treated properly
I just had the expereince of testifying at a court case where the above paragraph weighed heavily on the courts decision, Once the decision is made public I will post the link
The case involved a recent new homeowner suing the Municipality(me), the old home owner, and the Realtor for; Negligence, Violating The Building Code, and Falsifying Information. The case was based on the new home owner moving into his new house, and with in 3 months his septic system was breaking out all over the ground creating a health hazard for the new home owner.
Now to back the story up just a bit the house in question is ten years old. The septic system also ten years old was designed for a 3 bedroom 3000 sq ft home, and has had regular maintenance done on the system, and was fully functional at the time of the sale.
The basement was finished 10 years ago when the house was built and 4 rooms were constructed in the basement. On the construction plans those 4 rooms were indicated as "library", "office", "media room" and "study" and were indicated this way since none of the above headings are listed in the building code as an increase to the hydraulic load on the property (remembering only bedrooms increase the hydraulic load), and thus the developer did not have to go through extra cost to install a larger septic system.
Now to the present, the home owner lists the property with a realtor, and such listing is listed as a 6 bedroom house. This is double what the septic system was designed for. The house sold and a family of 8 moved into the house. With in three months of 6 kids between the ages of 13 and 22 and 2 adults the septic failed as it was not designed for this load.
The new homeowner took the position that he was buying a 6 bedroom house and he felt the septic system must have been designed for a 6 bedroom house. Guess what he won!, The municipality (me) was cleared since we designed the system correctly for a 3 Bedroom house which was indicated on the plans, although the old home owner and the realtor did not make out that well being fined quite an elaborate amount of money as the Justice of the peace found both the Homeowner and the Realtor did not do their due dilligence to list the house properly, and falsified information on the MLS listing.
I'm not agreeing with the Justice of the peace and his decision, although I do feel for the new homeowner that was mislead by the old homeowner and the realtor
Just to let everyone know and to protect themselves and do their due dillegence when listing a property
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