Hi I've recently posted this on other forums so if you've seen it before just ignore it!
Also this is not Perth (my partner) but Justin writing, somehow the forum insists that I'm not me! Anyway...:
Hi our neighbours septic tank is on our land and they have rights of access for "maintaining and renewing".
They're selling up and this has triggered a survey which is recommending a replacement as the existing one is an old and slightly leaky brick one.
It seems they can not replace it in the existing location because it floods occasionally and the ground is considered to be too unstable (it's actually at the top of a river bank and discharges directly into the river). So they want to move it to a different location but still on our land.
In Scotland currently you can replace a septic tank with a new one even if it discharges into a watercourse, and it seems that that is what they would prefer to do in order to avoid the extra cost of a treatment plant (no space or soil even for a leaching field btw).
So my first question: Does anybody here know if Scotland is going to follow in Englands footsteps and require a treatment plant for watercourse discharges in the near future? I've heard, third hand, of a SEPA employee saying that this change is imminent.
Second question: I think in Scotland the regs say that a septic tank must be at least 5m from an inhabited house and/or a boundary. But what about trees and outbuildings? I've come across a graphic called "Distances to repect" which details the distances for trees and outbuildings, but it's provenance seems to be from a drainage business and doesn't seem to be official guidance, so I'm not sure if I can use it to try to influence the location of the new tank. We have some lovely apple trees which we would be sad to lose.
Third question: Do the neighbours have any right in law to dictate the new location of this tank, given it's a replacement for one they have some kind of wayleave or servitude for, or can we ask them to put it in their own garden which would technically be possible though a bit more difficult?
Any help with these questions would be very much appreciated. Please do bear in mind that we're in Scotland.
With many thanks in advance
Justin
Also this is not Perth (my partner) but Justin writing, somehow the forum insists that I'm not me! Anyway...:
Hi our neighbours septic tank is on our land and they have rights of access for "maintaining and renewing".
They're selling up and this has triggered a survey which is recommending a replacement as the existing one is an old and slightly leaky brick one.
It seems they can not replace it in the existing location because it floods occasionally and the ground is considered to be too unstable (it's actually at the top of a river bank and discharges directly into the river). So they want to move it to a different location but still on our land.
In Scotland currently you can replace a septic tank with a new one even if it discharges into a watercourse, and it seems that that is what they would prefer to do in order to avoid the extra cost of a treatment plant (no space or soil even for a leaching field btw).
So my first question: Does anybody here know if Scotland is going to follow in Englands footsteps and require a treatment plant for watercourse discharges in the near future? I've heard, third hand, of a SEPA employee saying that this change is imminent.
Second question: I think in Scotland the regs say that a septic tank must be at least 5m from an inhabited house and/or a boundary. But what about trees and outbuildings? I've come across a graphic called "Distances to repect" which details the distances for trees and outbuildings, but it's provenance seems to be from a drainage business and doesn't seem to be official guidance, so I'm not sure if I can use it to try to influence the location of the new tank. We have some lovely apple trees which we would be sad to lose.
Third question: Do the neighbours have any right in law to dictate the new location of this tank, given it's a replacement for one they have some kind of wayleave or servitude for, or can we ask them to put it in their own garden which would technically be possible though a bit more difficult?
Any help with these questions would be very much appreciated. Please do bear in mind that we're in Scotland.
With many thanks in advance
Justin
