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My offer got accepted and currently in contract in central jersey, just came back from an inspection. The inspector found metal anomaly in the backyard during the tank sweep and he is suspected it's a septic tank. The report doesn't come out until tomorrow, I am wondering if there anything else I can do to make sure it's not an oil tank or some sort. If it turns out to be an abandoned septic tank should I be worried? The house was built in 1963.
Thank you for your suggestions, I am going to talk to my attorney about this and just want to arm myself with more information, do you know if Ground Penetration Radar any good, and what's the cost for such a service.
You should be able to check with your town/city health department or Building Department, They should have plans on file for where the septic tank (if any) were placed on the property when it was built,
My guess is at some point the home was connected to sewer?
is there any other evidence of abandoned oil service? Cut lines penetrated in basement/craw space? Do other houses in the neghborhood have oil? Are you/they on city sewer?
You also need to think about where it is and how it would get used. Oil tanks needed to be filled from a truck that drove onto the property, so is it near the driveway with a possible location for a connection that someone could get to easily? Then the oil had to get into the house to the furnace, and they wouldn't put it fifty feet from the house when ten feet away would do. Even back then they knew tree roots would destroy underground pipes so you'd want your oil tank accessible and near the house.
Septic tanks, on the other hand, are kind of the opposite. Get them away from the house in case something goes wrong. So think about it critically and see if any permits were ever pulled for any tank work at the house.
The house is connected to the sewer and the house is currently running on gas. The inspector did find 2 holes patched in the basement facing the front yard and he thinks the tanks was inside the basement at some point. He found some metal object about 3' x 5' under the patio with the metal detector, he didn't think that's an oil tank and could be a septic tank or some sort.
Any neighboring houses of similar style? Ours is the same house design as our neighbor's, so we found out fairly easily that the oil tank used to be in the basement since that's where theirs is. Their house isn't oil but nobody has removed the tank yet.
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