10-30-2007, 07:09 AM
Having moved from a county that had upgraded their standards to aerobic septic from standard for all rural resisdences, there are fairly painless (relatively) ways of updating the systems. Our last county:
gave real estate tax breaks to parcels that had upgraded (and 'pollution tax' to those that had not complied)
had 0% loans available with long range payback
made compliance mandatory for real estate transfer (ie: you sell or change ownership in any way, the system had to be upgraded)
In this way, those who could not comply, did have a tax burden for their non-compliance, but could also save by complying with a long term loan. The big catch was that real estate could not change hands without compliance....In a place like Kapoho, many of the non-compliant parcels would be compliant within a very few years just based on that one factor. Either the seller or the buyer has to bring the property into compliance for the transfer to be recorded.
gave real estate tax breaks to parcels that had upgraded (and 'pollution tax' to those that had not complied)
had 0% loans available with long range payback
made compliance mandatory for real estate transfer (ie: you sell or change ownership in any way, the system had to be upgraded)
In this way, those who could not comply, did have a tax burden for their non-compliance, but could also save by complying with a long term loan. The big catch was that real estate could not change hands without compliance....In a place like Kapoho, many of the non-compliant parcels would be compliant within a very few years just based on that one factor. Either the seller or the buyer has to bring the property into compliance for the transfer to be recorded.