today I’m gonna talk about how to sell
your house in Oakland and the
surrounding area is a little more
complicated out here and we have a few
more things to work through and one of
those is the sewer lateral compliance hi
my name is Tanja Odzak-Goppold I’m a realtor
with Keller Williams and I work Oakland
and the Greater East Bay area so this is
very exciting stuff I’m going to tell
you right now you might want to pause
this video to go get your popcorn out
for the rest of this movie I’m gonna
tell you what is the sewer lateral why
it is where it applies how to get your
certificate so make sure you watch until
the end to hear about how that factors
in to when you sell your house and also
to when you’re buying out so the private
sewer lateral is all the pipes and
appurtenances that carry the gray water
from a house to the sewer lateral main
that runs through the middle of the
street each house has one right because
whenever you run the water through your
house it leaves a house and it goes
through all this to the main sewer
lateral in the street from there it
heads out towards the main city water
treatment facility so the private sewer
lateral is what is subject to the
program requirements a lot of the houses
out here will were built before 1950 and
a lot of them still have their original
sewer laterals like they weren’t
replaced so these plate pipes were made
out of clay and what happens is with
time they can crack they can become
disjointed or displace it can be damaged
by tree roots causing leaks and
blockages and so when it cracks rain and
groundwater can seep it into the pipe
and so that’s into the sewer this extra
water in the sewer system can overwhelm
the pipes and the treatment plant so
basically what that means is that some
untreated wastewater or partially
untreated can run into the bay so the
issue with fixing these damaged sewer
lateral pipes is not about this gray
water leaking out into the ground or
more of water leaking into them so to
remedy the situation in 2009 the EPA and
the California Water Quality Control Board ordered EBMUD which is the East Bay Municipal
Utility District 60 space cities and one
sewer district to fix all these old
crack pipes so then this is when the
private sewer lateral or the PSL
ordinance was phased in and it started
in 2011 and if your house is in one of
the areas shown now on this map you’re
gonna need to get a certificate from EB
mud certifying that your sewer lateral
is leak free even my customers in the
green shaded area of the image are the
ones that have to comply with the sewer
lateral ordinance so these cities
currently at them now are Alameda Albany
Emeryville Oakland Piedmont Kensington
El Cerrito Richmond annex and some
cities in Contra Costa County Berkeley
has its own separate program but also
check out the website or consult with
your Realtor to see if there have been
any changes that might affect you the
website is East Bay PSL dot-com so when
do you have to bring your PSL into
compliance there’s basically three
triggers and a fourth option the first
one is if you’re buying or selling a
property it’s a trigger you have to
bring it into compliance second is if
your building or remodeling in excess of
$100,000 and the third is if you’re
changing the size of your water meter
the fourth of course is that anyone can
choose to voluntary voluntarily bring
their sewer lateral into compliance
just because or you know if you’re
having work done on it there are a
couple of exceptions the first is if it
happens to be less than 10 years from
the final sign-off date and the other is
if your sewer lateral was fully replaced
before the program went into effect
there’s some guidelines that you need to
follow but again go to East Bay PSL comm
to get more information so how do you
get your private sewer lateral into
compliance
essentially you need to get it tested
and you need to prove that it doesn’t
so the process basically is you hire an
inspector to come out and do an
inspection they run a camera down the
pot so that they can see what’s going on
if the joints are offset or maybe you
know there’s some roots that are coming
into the pipe so they can see that it’s
cracked or broken then obviously it’s
not gonna pass you’re gonna need to fix
it if there is a chance that you can
pass without repairs then you know
they’ll let you know but I would say
basically assume that it’s not gonna
pass so what do you notice or you know
that there are repairs that have to be
done then obviously you have to repair
it or replace it once that’s done then
you schedule an inspection with the evey
mud and your contractor will set up and
administer this verification test
eveyone will witness it and they’ll
confirm that you know yes if it’s free
of leaks then it will pass and it
usually will pass if you hire a good you
know a good sewer lateral person if it
doesn’t pass and that means you’re gonna
need to do additional work and to repeat
the whole process and if you pass and
then you can just go ahead and get your
certificate of complaining so how much
does it cost
well each house is different and every
city has different different rules but
usually it’s about starts at $5,000 it
can be upwards of that depending so what
does this mean when you’re buying a
house or selling a house if you’re a
seller you need to know whether the
property is in an area that requires a
sewer lateral compliance so then you
need to know if you are already in
compliance because if you are then
you’re good if not then you need to have
a plan and you need to know you know are
you gonna bring the sewer lateral into
compliance and if so you know how much
does it cost for you and is that gonna
fit into part of your overall budget for
getting your house ready to put on the
market or is it gonna be something that
you’re gonna try to negotiate with a
buyer and then if so what’s your plan
there are no hard and fast rules about
who needs to do it other than the sale
itself triggers a requirement to comply
and we’ll get into the timeline for that
in a bit so if you’re a buyer you need
to know if the house is in
that requires compliance and if so then
you’ll need to know if the house happens
to already be in compliance if it’s not
then you’re gonna want to know if it’s
already been inspected and how much is
it gonna cost to bring it in to comply
you’re gonna need to have a plan for how
to negotiate the sewer lateral
compliance as part of your overall offer
if the sewer lateral is not a compliance
at the time that title transfers then
the buyers org you know now the new
owners of the property can pay a $4,500
deposit with evey mud and file for a
hundred and eighty day time extension
and these are all things that your
Realtor can help you find that answer
for and whether you’re a buyer or Asst
so you should check out my series on
it’s gonna be up here in this corner
here how to sell my house in Oakland
California especially the one on
SIDEWALK COMPLIANCE because if you
thought this one was a nail-biter that
was gonna be very exciting to you and if
you like this one please give me a like
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