Does anyone have a list of rules they give their tenants about what can and can not be put down the septic systems? I want to educate our tenants (I don’t know if they will listen or not) about what they can not put down the toilets and drains. Also does anyone put in their lease that we will pump the septic upon new tenant moving in but if clog the septic you will be paying to have it pumped? Does anyone do that or can I do that?
We have a lift station, which is materially similar from this perspective - and state in the rules no grease and no wipes down the drain. Note its technically impossible for us to link who would have put this stuff down the drain and created an issue - it’s just an awareness, and ask, to be responsible.
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I don’t think the rules matter. We have tenants who like to flush toys down the toilet. If the fine print says “tenant shall not flush toys down the toilet” I don’t think it would make any difference. Instead, the lease calls tenants to pay for tenant induced damages including to the sewer system.
Not to be technical, but a clogged sewer line does not necessarily call for a septic tank pump out. You would snake the line. That may or may not require a pump out.
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How do you bill back the tenants when a Tonka truck is stuck in the sewer trunk line? Just trying to understand how actionable this is when there are tenant induced damages that you can’t trace back to a unit…
If we can’t trace it back to unit then we cannot bill it. However many times the kids have a Tonka truck stuck in the lateral from their home to the main trunk line. In that case it is obvious and we bill it back.
For less obvious issues like feminine hygiene products we can sometimes isolate the unit responsible. For example if we’ve got 60 units on a straight trunk line, and only one is having issues then clearly it is in their lateral, so we bill them.
Other times we cannot identify the specific unit but we can narrow it down to two or three units. There have been times when we called all two or three asking if they flush feminine hygiene products and one of the tenants said yes. When that happens we bill that tenant.
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