One thing I’d add that no one seems to have mentioned yet: Not all private sewers are septic systems. There’s another type called an aerobic plant that basically functions as a mini sewage treatment plant: instead of a tank and a leach field, you have a series of tanks, an agitator pump, a chlorinator, and a pump that moves the grey water from the final tank to somewhere else (like a set of sprinklers).
The county where I live requires that kind because the clay soil we have drains so poorly.
They cost more to maintain and run, so be sure and ask the owner of the place you’re buying what kind of system they have and how much (and who) they pay to maintain it.
Like I said, you may get away without pumping for a long time and not causing complete system failure but there are benefits to doing so and it is actually cheap insurance.
That’s probably true. I’ve mentioned it to Mr. K on a number of occasions, but he’s unconcerned with it.
Our situation is a little different, and I’m not real clear on how it all works. Our lot was a 7 acre farm at one time. It was divided about 20 years ago. I’m not sure, but I believe our septic field is on the other guy’s property. We have tons of mature trees on our lot, but his lot has wide open spaces. I assume if there was a problem, it would show up on his property. We do have an access point to pump the tank, but the field itself is quite a distance from us. But we’ve never smelled any back-up.
Well, at least you know now why you never have to pump your septic…
You don’t mention what kind of area this house is in.
We briefly owned a house smack dab in the middle of the Chicago suburbs, that was still on it’s own well and septic system. We didn’t have any problems with either, but just as we were getting ready to sell the house (job relocation) the village decided to extend city water and sewers to our neighborhood. Owners were going to be required to hook up to them, at the cost of several thousand dollars, just for the hookup rights. The city was ging to offer 10year loans to help people pay for it. Actually work would be extra.
Short answer? If this house is in an urban area, talk to the potential neighbors, or to the city, and find out if there are any plans, or rumors, to require city water/sewer hook up.