New rules for septic tanks came in to force in January 2020. I imagine, like the majority of septic tank users I was unaware of the changes and, in effect, I'm now breaking the law. I only became aware of the rule changes when I looked at putting my house on the market and it flagged up with the solicitor.

I'm now in the position of having to replace my current "traditional" system with a sewage treatment plant. The installation costs are not inconsiderable being in the region of £12-15k so I want to get it right.

There are numerous systems on the market that meet the new criteria but very little in the way of meaningful reviews or historical information on reliability, maintenance costs etc.

The vast majority of compliant systems require an electric supply and have internal moving parts, which in my opinion will inevitably lead to down time and repair costs.

There are a couple of systems that have no moving parts and no power supply, they do have renewable elements. There is even less information available on these systems but, in theory they would be a more "attractive" proposition.

Does anyone have any experience of living with a compliant sewage treatment system that they could pass on ?

It appears not to be the whole system that necessarily needs replacing but where it drains to.

We have friends and family with this issue.

The issue is "how far is the septic tank drain field from a waterway or pond".
If it is less than a specified distance then when the house is sold the septic system has to be brought up to compliance BEFORE contracts can be exchanged. Who pays is up to the prospective buyer and seller.
The work has to be done by a specialist contractor and the new micro sewage system does need regular servicing.

In our case my SIL is in the last stage of a messy divorce, the house has to be sold and it has an old style system, shared with another house.
The other homeowner is unwilling to be involved, so the house sale and the financial settlement part of the divorce has stalled.
As neither my SIL noreher ex can fund the work it seems to be an impasse.
They have explored getting a court to order the neighbour to pay his share, but the courts will not get involved.

So, SIL continues to live in the home, the EX in rented accomodation and both are VERY unhappy as they cannot move on.

Do you know if this legislation is retrospective? I have a friend up North who has one and I'm worried for her that she might have a large outlay to come up to compliance. Cheers.

I have one of these.

VORTEX ECO Wastewater Treatment Plant

Had it for 5 years- very little maintenance, low running costs and seems to work well.

Doesn't appear to apply in Scotland Bob if your friend is up here. You can register it with SEPA if you want to sell your house but it's not the law. At least that's what I was told.

It's certainly retrospective in England, I'm not sure about Scotland.

Our system doesn't discharge into a water course, so we're ok, but even so I understand that the new rules specify that a system has to be upgraded before a house is sold or "As soon as possible".

So apart from not selling your house, there's an easy get-out - just say it's not been possible to do it yet.

Thank you all for your replies. I'll look into it.

Make sure to keep your mouth closed and hold your breath