Half the houses that change hands in the rural and edge parts of Cabarrus County are on septic, and a good share of buyers are coming from Charlotte apartments where the sewer was somebody else's problem. Here is what to check, in the order it pays to check it.
1. Pull the county file first
Before the inspection, before the offer if you can, ask the Cabarrus Health Alliance for the septic record by address. You want the as-built sketch and the operation permit. The sketch tells the inspector where to dig; the permit tells you how many bedrooms the system was sized for. A four-bedroom listing on a three-bedroom permit is a negotiation, not a deal-breaker, but you want to be the one who knows.
2. Book the inspection early, and do not pump first
Due diligence in North Carolina is short. Book the septic inspection in the first days, not the last. And do not let the seller pump the tank the week before: an inspector wants to see the working levels, and a freshly pumped tank hides a failing field for a month.
3. Watch the load test, not the pumping receipt
A receipt for a pump-out two years ago is not evidence the field works. The load test is: water run into the system while the inspector watches the outlet, the field and the ground. On the county's clay a field that is finished shows itself in twenty minutes.
4. If there is a well, check the distance
Out toward Mount Pleasant, Midland and Georgeville the house is on a well too. The county checks the separation between the well and the field on any repair permit, and a well that is too close is a finding that limits what can be done with the field later.
5. Ask what the field can be replaced with
On a tight lot inside a newer subdivision the question is not whether the field works today but what happens when it does not. If there is no spare ground, the replacement is a pump system or a pretreatment unit at two or three times the cost of a conventional field. The inspector can tell you from the sketch and the lot.
Useful links
- Cabarrus Health Alliance: Onsite Wastewater – the county office that holds the septic file and issues permits
Questions on this
Can the seller refuse the inspection?
The seller can refuse access to the tank, and that is an answer in itself. Most sellers in the county expect it; some order their own before listing.