City Water / Sewer

[smiley]

The city we live in is relatively new. It just celebrated it's 50th anniversary (I think in 2009). Most of the houses do not have city water and sewer. The houses have a well system and a septic tank.

Would you buy / build a house that was not on city utilities?

We are fortunate to have water / sewer in our neighborhood but when we decide to move the house most likely won't (unless we relocate to another city). I like the convenience of having water / sewer so I am not sure how I would feel about a well / septic tank.

[countthestars]

Only a few areas of our town have water/sewer. We are building a house now and have septic and well. I grew up with septic and well and have absolutely no problem with either. My family is in the septic business.

ETA: Of course something could happen where we would have to replace one or both, but it's not likely to happen any time soon and we don't pay monthly bills for them, which is nice. The well is a pain when we lose electricity, but we are putting in a generator.

[mrs.spunky]

When DH and I were looking at houses, we wanted city/water sewer, but would have purchased a house with well/septic if the house was perfect otherwise, and the owners had meticulously kept it cleaned/drained. The town adjacent to where we live is more rural and well/septic were much more prevalent there.
I voted "no".

[agnes]

This is so foreign to me. I don't think this is something I would ever come across in my lifetime living in my area.

I didn't vote.

[chessie]

Doesnt matter. I currently live with no city utilities or anything provided by the town. Well, septic..

[hamster]

I have no problems with well/septic, but if it's in an incorporated town I would have concerns about the likely hood of upgrading and the impact it would have on my property taxes. I have no problem paying for the service, but the cost of implementing is extremely expensive and would likely be passed on the users in some fashion.

[Becca]

Aug 16, 2012 13:30:17 GMT -5 hamster said:

I have no problems with well/septic, but if it's in an incorporated town I would have concerns about the likely hood of upgrading and the impact it would have on my property taxes. I have no problem paying for the service, but the cost of implementing is extremely expensive and would likely be passed on the users in some fashion.

Yep. I have worked with a City as they implemented water/sewer services and the cost is massive. Some families lost their homes because they couldn't afford the cost. There is more to the story than that (which I can't share) but at the end of the day, I wouldn't ever want to be in that situation.

[cjeanette]

No

[ddi741]

I'm ok having septic instead of city sewer but when we built, I had to build somewhere with city water.

[glynn2009]

We have septic so I would be OK. I would hate to go back to well water but a lot of places here have it.

[Nonny]

I voted yes, but there are a lot of caveats to my yes and if I didn't get satisfactory answers it would switch to a no.

1. I would have extensive water quality testing done first to give me an idea of the quality of the well. (We have city water, but my H grew up with a well.)
2. Septic tank needs to be inspected. If building a new house a survey of the land would need to be done to ensure adequate drainage for the leach field. (We're currently on septic, and it's been fine.)
3. Have $$ or a contingency plan for if sewer comes through -- this can be VERY expensive and you pretty much have no choice.
4. Have a generator to pump the well in case of power outage.
5. Must have high speed Internet access. This is a requirement for any house we'd consider.

[Deleted]

We will probably purchase my parents' house in a few years; it has city water and septic. The septic was updated very recently, and hasn't had any issues. It can actually be a blessing if there's any flooding in the area (twice in the past 5yrs here). People on city sewer lines can then have sewage backing into their houses (okay, this is relatively uncommon, but make sure you that rider on house insurance if you are on city lines).

I've never had well water for every day use so I'm less comfortable with that, but as long as it was tested and considered safe I would consider it. Sewer and water rates have been increasing in our areas, so there can be a MM aspect to being off the grid in these ways. I'm much less comfortable dealing with propane, oil or pellet heating, which is common in our area as you get away from the main city/village area.

[rubytue]

I've had both and I kind of prefer well/septic. It's cheaper for one. The well water at my old house tasted better than most city water. Plus the county used way too much chlorine and it faded half my clothes in the 4 months we rented. Oh, and the well water tests far better than the city water I have now (thanks Baltimore city!). We have the worst water quality in the county.

[hbomdiggity]

Grew up on well/septic and I also kinda prefer it. The water def tasted better.

[smiley]

Aug 16, 2012 14:20:02 GMT -5 Nonny said:

5. Must have high speed Internet access. This is a requirement for any house we'd consider.

This isn't even something I equated with water/sewer. I do know the inlaws (live like 3 miles away) were only about to get Dish when they first moved in then Comcast finally went out that way. They are unable to get FIOS though. That would be an issue.

[Deleted]

Hell no. Not unless I did ALL the research and understood all the potential costs.

For example, My DH is a civil engineer for the city we live in. The town grew by leaps and bounds in the last decade. A couple of 1950's era "rural" subdivisions with septic/wells are now enclosed within the city limits. The county health department has determined that they will not issue new well/septic permits, which forces all of those properties to come onto the City's utilities when the septic inevitably needs to be rebuilt. This is currently a $12,000 fee, and that doest count the cost of extending the sewer main, which will be shared by all the propert owners on the street through a special assessment.

[phoenixrising]

Prior to our separation, I lived in the house my H owns, which has a well and septic system with a sand mound. I will never again go that route. We didn't have any specific problems with it, but I grew up in an area (the same area in which I am living now) where this was NOT the norm, and I am more comfortable being on the grid in this case.

[steph96]

Like others mentioned, I would be concerned about if/when you would be forced to convert to city utilities. Don't you have to pay to have the septic tank removed too? Either way, that is a lot of money.

I live in a place with septic/well water. The only bad thing is when the power goes out. Other than that, it doesn't change anything. I'm actually happy that I am on well water here since the city water is so hard and nasty.

[magdala9]

I grew up with well water and septic system so it doesn't phase me. I would add a few conditions of sale in that I would want the well tested so that I knew what kind of water (hard, soft, clay) I was getting and I would want the septic system pumped out.

[rubytue]

Aug 16, 2012 17:09:26 GMT -5 smiley said:

Aug 16, 2012 14:20:02 GMT -5 Nonny said:

5. Must have high speed Internet access. This is a requirement for any house we'd consider.

This isn't even something I equated with water/sewer. I do know the inlaws (live like 3 miles away) were only about to get Dish when they first moved in then Comcast finally went out that way. They are unable to get FIOS though. That would be an issue.

Our old house has FiOS, well, and septic.

My parents have Comcast digital service (phone/cable/internet), septic, and have only been on public water about 5 years (house is about 20 years old).

[countthestars]

www.epa.gov/owm/septic/pubs/septic_systems_factsheet.pdf

22% of houses built in the last ten-ish years have septic and half of the septic systems in the US are in the burbs or cities. We have Internet here.

[heygrey]

i grew up with a well/septic, but my parents are so far out in the country that it's unlikely it will ever switch to city utilities (considering they can't see their nearest neighbor the idea of a "city" is laughable). we had no major problems there and i still prefer the taste of their well water over any city water i've had to date.

that said, if i were house shopping in our town i would look specifically for a house already on the city lines since they are slowly switching over. i do not want to assume that cost in the next five years. some homeowners with houses on the market are offering cash back, or a reduced rate to cover the cost of hooking up to city utilities since it's a huge deterrent to house buyers right now.

[chessie]

Aug 16, 2012 17:09:26 GMT -5 smiley said:

Aug 16, 2012 14:20:02 GMT -5 Nonny said:

5. Must have high speed Internet access. This is a requirement for any house we'd consider.

This isn't even something I equated with water/sewer. I do know the inlaws (live like 3 miles away) were only about to get Dish when they first moved in then Comcast finally went out that way. They are unable to get FIOS though. That would be an issue.

Can be brought in, easy fix. We brought in through a line and a new pole through the woods. We picked to live in a rural area though, so a little bit of work I was fine with that. On bad days we get no cell service which is fine.

[marshmallowevening]

I voted SS because I already don't have city sewer which is okay. I'd prefer to have it, but obviously I was okay with not having it because I bought my house. I wouldn't want a well, though. I grew up with one and wells around here can have a lot of problems.

[lolzlala]

City water OR sewer was was the requirement on my part when H and I were looking at houses - we bought with city water and sewer. I have seen the bills my parents have had when replacing the septic (on one home) and re-doing the leach field (on another). And H had talked about the cost of re-drilling the wells around here (in-laws recently had to have it done, and when they didn't hit the first time had to pay even more to drill again).

All that potential cost and the drought conditions in the summer around here potentially drying out a well, I'm all good with paying city utilities in these cases. I like that I'm only responsible for what's run from the meter to my house.

[smiley]

Aug 17, 2012 18:58:54 GMT -5 lolzlala said:

All that potential cost and the drought conditions in the summer around here potentially drying out a well, I'm all good with paying city utilities in these cases. I like that I'm only responsible for what's run from the meter to my house.

I have never thought about the drought aspect. We live in FL so the winters have very little to no rain.

[lolzlala]

Aug 17, 2012 19:16:33 GMT -5 smiley said:

Aug 17, 2012 18:58:54 GMT -5 lolzlala said:

All that potential cost and the drought conditions in the summer around here potentially drying out a well, I'm all good with paying city utilities in these cases. I like that I'm only responsible for what's run from the meter to my house.

I have never thought about the drought aspect. We live in FL so the winters have very little to no rain.

We hear no end to the drought conditions from BIL, they have a well, and at times it's so dry here he freaks out and SIL has to start using the laundrymat.