Oakland Sewer Lateral Compliance/Private Sewer Lateral Inspection/Sewer Lateral Ordinance

Oakland Sewer Lateral Compliance/Private Sewer Lateral Inspection/Sewer Lateral Ordinance

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

below and subscribe to my channel

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