A few months ago, our Massachusetts town completed their long time work on a sewer project that has been going on for over 20+ years. They concluded by sending a letter to a group of members in our condo association stating that we had to hook up to the town sewer before we would be able to sell our property.
No prior notice or warning was given, i.e. no letter sent out a year before warning us of the forced conversion, etc. 4 of our 16 units are on a shared septic system which is maintained every 18 months. The other 12 units are hooked up to the town sewer and have been since being built in the late 80s (the 4 units that are not are far behind the other 12 units and will require a 300 ft run to connect) To my knowledge, and what I have seen in other town documentation, is as long as our septic system is functioning, we do not have to connect to the town sewer. Obviously in the case of a failure, we would not pass title 5 and would have to connect.
We do intent to connect up to the sewer, perhaps a little earlier than we would like, but because of the length of connection and expense, are trying to determine if the town has any right to block the sale of a home, as long as we have a viable septic system and leech field, of if we have more time to raise the funds, and best plan out how we hook up the remaining 4 units. One of the first contractors who was looking at the projected told us the towns always try that, his town tried it a few years back, and it is more of threats, and the town trying to get more sewer revenue, and that they really have no say as long as the title 5 and the septic passes inspection.
Which is right? Is this something that is town by town? (Chelmsford MA) When we have the septic system pumped, we always ask for the opinion of its condition and function and it has always comeback with flying colors, so we were thinking this was more of a 5 - 10 year project and not a this year project. We will likely push up the time frame regardless now, but trying to understand if we really need to complete this in the next few months to year, or if we have more time. Thanks
