This story is one of my favorites, simply because it taught me a good lesson. Hopefully you will learn from my mistake and not make the same one.
My business partner and I purchased a rental property in Fairfield Island area of Chilliwack back in the spring of 2008. Typical BC box built in the 1970’s, 3 bedroom suite upstairs, and a two bedroom suite in the basement. My business partner went to school in Chilliwack and knew the area well, for me it was all relatively new. The numbers seemed to work, so we jumped in after having the property inspected by the pros.
Within a year of owning and managing the property, the toilet and drains in the basement started to back up on a regular basis. We called in the plumbers, who dropped a bombshell on us. They advised us that we were on a septic tank system, and that the tank was full, and would need to be drained. Once cleaned out, we were told that the clay piping running to and from the septic tank, and into the septic field (the backyard), had eroded, and was backing up into the field. The field was so littered with debris from the tank, that the entire system either needed to be replaced, or simply hooked up to the city sewer line. No wonder the grass in the back yard grew so well, it was being fertilized with human waste on a daily basis!
Our choices now were to either replace the septic system with a new one at a whopping cost of $10,000, or to hook up to the City of Chilliwack’s sewer system for $4000. Obviously, we elected to go with #2. After some excavating and re-seeding the backyard, our problems went away, but not without costing us around $5k.
What recourse did we have? The inspector didn’t see it. We didn’t think of asking. Our Realtor never mentioned anything to us about the neighborhood potentially being on a septic system. Aren’t these systems for rural properties, not city’s of 80,000 people? The MLS sheet only listed the water supply source (City), not the waste system.
Real Estate investing lesson learned, buyer beware!
By Chris Stepchuk July 28, 2013