Justin R

Indeed both our outflow and the neighbours drain into the river and not 30 feet further down river is a local beauty spot car park and many people's favourite swimming spot! However SEPA test the water there regularly and have never found a problem, even when the river is very low in the summer. When we bought the house 20 yrs ago they told us not to worry about it. However I have heard that the regulations are due to change to be more in line with the new (2020) English system quite soon, which would then mean an upgrade to treatment plant for both of us. Problem is it's very difficult to confirm this. Sepa will hardly even answer emails.

Thanks both, so from what you say (ProDave) it sound like there already is a requirement in Scotland to not discharge a replacement septic tank to a watercourse. We were going to push for a treatment plant anyway so this news will help, but the sellers are not keen as they are looking for every saving they can make. However a treatment plant will be cheaper than both a new septic tank and a new leaching field I'd guess (though this would probably be impossible anyway due to small gardens sitting on solid rock!) The bubbler ones seem reasonable and probably shallower than an onion so less rock to peck out? Many thanks again for your help

Hi our neighbours septic tank is on our land and they have rights of access for "maintaining and renewing". They're selling up and this has triggered a survey which is recommending a replacement as the existing one is an old and slightly leaky brick one. It seems they can not replace it in the existing location because it floods occasionally and the ground is considered to be too unstable (it's actually at the top of a river bank and discharges directly into the river). So they want to move it to a different location but still on our land. In Scotland currently you can replace a septic tank with a new one even if it discharges into a watercourse, and it seems that that is what they would prefer to do in order to avoid the extra cost of a treatment plant (no space or soil even for a leaching field btw). So my first question: Does anybody here know if Scotland is going to follow in Englands footsteps and require a treatment plant for watercourse discharges in the near future? I've heard, third hand, of a SEPA employee saying that this change is imminent. Second question: I think in Scotland the regs say that a septic tank must be at least 5m from an inhabited house and/or a boundary. But what about trees and outbuildings? I've come across a graphic called "Distances to repect" which details the distances for trees and outbuildings, but it's provenance seems to be from a drainage business and doesn't seem to be official guidance, so I'm not sure if I can use it to try to influence the location of the new tank. We have some lovely apple trees which we would be sad to lose. Third question: Do the neighbours have any right in law to dictate the new location of this tank, given it's a replacement for one they have some kind of wayleave or servitude for, or can we ask them to put it in their own garden which would technically be possible though a bit more difficult? Any help with these questions would be very much appreciated. Please do bear in mind that we're in Scotland. With many thanks in advance Justin

Thanks all, many interesting perspectives. One thing I didn't mention before is that the room already has a sink in it, hand was basin type. So if we put say a microwave and a small fridge in the room can we account for the sink under the "as existing" heading and disregard it, therefore avoiding the requirement for building regs approval etc? Think I'll try the building control office again (failed to get anything useful from them before), if I have any luck I'll let you know the outcome.

Hi, I'm new here and have a building regs question. My Dad needs a full time helper in the house so we are setting up the spare room for this person. They will not be renting the room, just "living in". We would like to give them some possibility of cooking in their room, so that during their private time they don't need to use the main kitchen, but I'm worried about coming up against building regs ie fire doors, electric certificates etc. and incurring major costs. So my question is: How much can we add to the room like fridge, microwave, cooker, kitchen sink etc. before the bedroom becomes a kitchen according to the law? In other words what is the definition of a kitchen? Cheers Justin