Welcome to the wonderful world of the Las Gallinas Valley Sanitary District! Nothing is life is free, and LGVSD currently charges homeowners $1235/year on their tax bills to handle waste water. That’s up from $1,124 (9.875%) the previous year, and $1031 (9.02%) the year before. Every year I cringe when I open my tax bill, but I digress. LGVSD provides a vital service to our community, and the only thing we can really do about it is leave. Just to get you one last time, they charge $250 to do a sewer line video review.
It is mandatory in the LGVSD to have a video done of your sewer line when you sell your property. There are many plumbers who perform this service, which is where things get a little dicey. When they discover small flaws in your line, some will tell you the pipe needs to be replaced. If you are in Southern Marin or in the Ross Valley District that’s true. Replacement can cost in the neighborhood of $10,000 - $20,000. Sewer replacement is something the seller can take care of before going on the market, or potentially just disclose and negotiate with the buyers.
LGVSD deserves credit for not being too draconian because currently the only reason they will mandate a pipe replacement is if there is an illegal hookup into the pipe, such as a downspout directed into the sewer. That’s very rare, and mixing runoff water with waste water can inundate and overwhelm the waste water systems, leading to sewage spills into the bay. As it is, cracks and offsets in the sewer pipes can also lead to groundwater seeping into our sewer system, which is why any pipe imperfections in other districts trigger mandatory pipe replacements. I’m purely speculating here, but it’s seems like at some point LGVSD will take their sewer review to the next level and do something similar.
Sewer videos are not cheap, and there is good reason they charge anywhere from $250-$400 to make them. Cameras are expensive, and they sometimes break when pipes are in poor condition. Labor is not cheap. Worst of all, the job literally stinks. When there is no cleanout (the mushroom cap you see in front of homes) toilets have to be removed to access the pipes. Or the camera needs to go through the roof. Either way, it costs more for the video.
Pro tip: if you’ve been having issues with your pipe and need to get it snaked on a regular basis, you should have it snaked before you have the video inspection. It can make all the difference in how the pipe is categorized by LGVSD, so it’s worth it to pay the extra money. Speaking of which, pipes are categorized in a ‘Letter of Findings’ as (1) needing no work (2) needing minimal maintenance or repair (3) recommended major repair or replacement (4) pipe has an illegal connection which must be disconnected (5) application and/or inspection was incomplete and needs to be redone.
If you don’t have a sewer cleanout, it will always be recommended that one is installed. In addition to giving easy access to the pipe, cleanouts (also known as Contra Costa values) also prevent waste water from backing up in the kitchen and bathrooms. Permits of course need to be taken out for the cleanouts. Sometimes my clients will opt to install a cleanout, but often we leave it as a disclosure which may or may not be negotiated along with deficiencies found in the home and pest inspections.
If your pipe is a category 3 and the recommendation is to repair or replace, you may want to consider taking action, depending on the market at the time. When there is little inventory and/or it’s a hot market it’s not really necessary. If there is a lot of other stuff going on with the property and don’t want to do anything, that’s another good reason not to throw money at a pipe in the ground. It’s also not necessary to replace the pipe if it has never been snaked and the video comes out ugly. The odds are it won’t give the new owners issues. In that case you might want to consider snaking the pipe and retaking the video before it’s submitted to LGVSD.
Timing: Keep in mind that you can expect the Letter of Findings in approximately 10 days. You can pay an additional $250 (making it $500 total) if you want to expedite the letter and get it back in 5 days. Any way you look at it, sewers stink and they are expensive. However, for my money public sewers beat septic systems and cesspools any day of the week.
*** Thank you for reading my blog! If you or any of your friends and family ever have any real estate questions, please feel free to contact me. I’m always happy to help! Email: AndyFalk2112@yahoo.com or Cell (415-250-8025)