On Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:53:46 +0100, "Peter Crosland"
wrote:


Sorry to be blunt but.............. With property transactions assume
nothing, and trust nobody! The property owner has to take responsibility for
their obligations. The consent is issued, and administered, by the EA and is
in the name of the property owner. It is up to the property owner to notify
the EA that the property ownership has changed. If it was transferred then
the EA would have sent the consent to you. So it seems likely that either
the consent has not been transferred or no consent exists.

I see.This is all most worrying.

Having said that, from looking at the Environment Agency page on this
matter:

http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk...ter/32038.aspx

a consent is not always needed, so perhaps that's the case with my
property and soakaway.

to quote from that page:

"We don't require Consent for discharges of sewage from a small sewage
treatment plant or septic tank into a soakaway or drainage field,
provided that:

* it is not in a Groundwater Source Protection Zone 1 (also
referred to as the Inner Zone);
* it has a volume of less than 2m3 per day;
* the installation was designed and built to the standards
applicable when it was installed; and
* it is properly maintained."


now my soakaway is located in a field that is also part of my
property. Only two people live in this property (my wife and myself)
so the volume of 'water' discharged per day is minimal.

Now whether the soakaway was built to the correct standards I don't
know, but I understand from a neighbour that it was built about 8 or
so years ago.

I guess I had better make some enquiries with the Environment Agency.

This is though VERY perplexing as I had assumed that this was all part
of the property exchange process. I was obviously mistaken.
Unfortunately these days ignorance is no excuse, but in this case I
think it should be! After all, how on earth was I to know?