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The rules apply only to domestic sewage — waste from a toilet, bathroom, shower or kitchen of a house, flat or business. Anything that is not domestic in nature needs a permit outright. On top of that sit two volume ceilings that decide which set of rules you read: a discharge to the ground must be 2 cubic metres, or 2,000 litres, or less per day, while a discharge to surface water must be 5 cubic metres, or 5,000 litres, or less per day. Exceed the relevant figure and you must connect to the public foul sewer where it is reasonable to do so, and apply for a permit where it is not.

The rules that apply to every discharge are worth knowing by heart, because they are the ones an inspection turns on. The discharge must not cause pollution of surface water or groundwater. The treatment system must comply with the British Standard in force when it was installed, must be installed and operated in accordance with the manufacturer's specification, and must be big enough for the load it actually carries. Maintenance must be carried out by someone competent, and waste sludge must be disposed of by an authorised person. If the property is sold the operator must give the new operator written notice describing the system and its maintenance requirements, and a system taken out of use must be properly decommissioned so nothing polluting can reach groundwater or surface water.

Systems installed more recently carry extra conditions. For a discharge that started on or after 1 January 2015 there are additional rules on proximity to a public foul sewer and on protected sites, and for a new discharge that started on or after 2 October 2023 two more apply: a new discharge must not share an outlet with another discharge where the combined volume would breach the volume thresholds, and must not be made to a discharge point within 50 metres of any other exempt groundwater or water discharge activity.

This is the single most consequential rule for older rural properties in England, and the one most often discovered during a sale. Where you discharge to a watercourse such as a river or stream, the treatment must come from a small sewage treatment plant, which treats sewage to a higher standard than a septic tank does. A plain septic tank is not permitted to discharge to a watercourse at all, and the guidance for discharges to ground says the same thing from the other direction: you must not discharge effluent from a septic tank to a watercourse.

If your septic tank does discharge directly to a watercourse, GOV.UK requires you, as soon as possible, to do one of three things — connect to a public foul sewer, replace the septic tank with a small sewage treatment plant, or install a drainage field, an infiltration system of perforated pipes in trenches through which the waste water trickles into the ground for further treatment, and then check that you meet the general binding rules for discharges to ground. The expectation is that you have plans in place to carry out that work within a reasonable timescale, usually twelve months.

Where a property changes hands with such a system in place, the Environment Agency's guidance is to agree between buyer and seller who will be responsible for replacing or upgrading the treatment system, and to settle it as a condition of sale. There is also a route worth asking about where several neighbouring properties are in the same position: if more than one property needs to replace or upgrade, the sewerage undertaker may have a legal duty to provide a sewer to connect to, which is known as first time sewerage.

A septic tank is an underground tank in which solids sink to the bottom as sludge while the liquid flows out to a drainage field. A small sewage treatment plant, also called a package treatment plant, works in a similar way but uses mechanical parts to treat the waste water to a higher standard before it leaves. The distinction decides what you are permitted to do with the effluent, so if you are not sure which you have, the guidance is to ask a local installation or maintenance company rather than guess.

A cesspool is a different animal and the general binding rules do not apply to it at all. It is a sealed tank with no outlet that simply stores sewage until it is emptied, so there is no discharge to regulate. What you must do instead is maintain it, make sure it is emptied regularly — GOV.UK gives monthly as the example — by a registered waste carrier, and make sure it does not leak or overflow. You do not need a permit unless the Environment Agency tells you that you do, and you are breaking the law if the cesspool causes pollution. Both the Environment Agency and your local council can require you to repair or replace one in poor condition.

If you are installing a new cesspool you need planning permission and building regulations approval, and it must have a minimum capacity of 18,000 litres for two users, plus a further 6,800 litres for each additional user. One practical warning from the guidance is worth repeating: if your system releases sewage into the ground or into surface water then it is not a cesspool, whatever it has always been called locally.

The general binding rules are an English regime. GOV.UK states plainly that there are different rules for septic tanks and treatment plants in Northern Ireland, in Scotland and in Wales, so the first question anywhere outside England is which regulator you are dealing with.

In Scotland the environmental regulator is SEPA. The Scottish building standards technical handbook is direct about the consequence: SEPA will require an authorisation to be applied for in respect of all discharges of sewage effluent, whether to ground via an infiltration system or to a watercourse. The handbook also requires every dwelling draining to a private treatment plant or septic tank to carry a label, sited next to the gas or electricity consumer unit or the water stopcock, stating that the drainage discharges to such a system and that the owner is legally responsible for routine maintenance, for compliance with any SEPA discharge consent, and for ensuring it does not present a health hazard or a nuisance.

Northern Ireland runs a consent system rather than binding rules. Under the Water (Northern Ireland) Order 1999 the discharge of sewage waste to any waterway or to water contained underground requires the consent of the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, and that includes waste from domestic premises not connected to the public sewer. A consent for a single domestic property is granted subject to the recommendations of the local council's Environmental Health (Rivers) Officer, applications are made online to NIEA, and the Order allows four months to determine one, so it is not a last-minute step. NIEA may inspect the site and the system, including dye testing, and that visit may happen without the occupier present. Separately, NI Water provides desludging to properties not connected to the mains sewer, with one free desludge in a twelve month period where the property and tank meet its access and safety conditions.

Before you ring anyone, work out three things: whether your system discharges to the ground or to surface water, whether it is a septic tank, a treatment plant or a cesspool, and roughly when it was installed or last significantly altered. Those three answers determine which rules apply to you, and a contractor who asks them is reading from the same guidance you are.

When you sell, the written notice to the new operator is a legal duty rather than a courtesy, and the Environment Agency sets out what it should contain: a description of the treatment system and drainage system, the location of the main parts and of the discharge point, details of any changes made, details of how the system should be maintained together with the maintenance manual if you have one, and the maintenance records if you have them. Assembling that pack before the sale is far easier than reconstructing it during one.

LokalMatch is where the quotations come from. You describe the job once — what sort of system you have, whether it goes to ground or to a watercourse, what it is doing, and your postcode — and septic contractors covering your area get in touch with you. The pros pay for the requests they receive; you do not. LokalMatch does not empty, service or install anything, takes no part in setting what a contractor charges, and does not vet, rank or recommend the businesses that reply, so checking that the firm removing your sludge is a registered waste carrier, and that whoever services the plant is competent, remains yours to do.