Replacement of a failing sewer lateral is required by city ordinance.
"Beginning
Wednesday (August 1), the City of Pacifica initiated a review of home
sale closings for compliance with the city’s mandatory point-of-sale
sewer lateral inspection ordinance. Failure to comply with the ordinance
– which went into effect on January 1 of this year – can result in a
$10,000 per day fine.
 |
| Just one more thing to do... |
Martinez
noted that when the failure to comply is discovered, the city sends a
letter granting a 30 day window within which a plan must be submitted
for and the certificate obtained. If this does not occur, the (up to)
$10,000 per day fine and other administrative penalties can take effect.
“Plus
we’ve had a number of instances where agents have waited until the day
escrow closes to contact us about the sewer lateral inspection,”
Martinez explained. “That’s unfortunately been another factor that’s led
to this review of transactions.” SAMCAR is assisting the City of
Pacifica with notifications and outreach to ensure REALTORS® remain
aware of the mandatory point-of-sale sewer lateral inspection.
In
negotiations with SAMCAR, Martinez asked that if any REALTOR® has any
questions regarding this or any other ordinances that involve the
Sanitary Sewer System, to please contact him directly. His contact
information is: Brian K. Martinez Sr./Collection System Manager/City of
Pacifica/(650) 738-4669/Fax-(650) 355-5721/martinezb@ci.pacifica.ca.us
This information has also been transmitted to the San Francisco, Silicon Valley and Santa Clara County Associations of REALTORS®."
Paul Stewart GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS DIRECTOR, (650) 696-8209 | paul@samcar.org
850 Woodside Way, San Mateo, California 94401, www.samcar.org | www.facebook.com/samcar.fans
850 Woodside Way, San Mateo, California 94401, www.samcar.org | www.facebook.com/samcar.fans
Submitted by Jim Wagner
Posted by Kathy Meeh
What a surprise!
ReplyDeleteWhat happens when they inspect the sewer lines and why do they want to do this?
ReplyDeleteWho does the inspecting? A plumber? I don't understand this.
The city says this is the reason why the state of the art sewer plant never work right..something about too much leakage from peoples pipes under the driveway.
ReplyDeleteThe City pipes in the street mostly in linda mar were built with old surplus shipyard pipe.
The city fails on the sewer plant and screws over everyone who wants to sell..
Great..Values down 50% and the city wants to make it harder to sell a house.
I wonder how many sales fall apart cause of this.
Why didn't the realtors scream about this. Oh ya they were all too busy selling houses.
Pacifica realtors as a whole epic failure!
if you don't understand this, then you have not read the prior info. on this, both on the internet and the paper; basically it's another way for the city to gauge homeowners to get money for a sewer system that is inadequate. every time a house is sold, it has to be inspected to be sure that the sewer is up to the "standards" set by the city; I think that each homeowner has to pay up to $5000 if I recall correctly; it's all a crock; we have paid sewer charges for years added to our tax bill as an additional line item (which is against prop 13 and is illegal), and nothing ever gets fixed; city just wants the money as usual
ReplyDeleteanon 918 you're going to love this. Basically the city for years spent the collected sewer funds on everything but the sewer system. Damn, if the thing didn't fall apart, particularly those 50 year old leaky laterals connecting homes to the system. The city was successfully sued for polluting the environment and part of the settlement agreement mandates repair of those laterals which the city identifies as leaking. The problem exists throughout Pacifica but is worst in lower Linda Mar and lower Pedro Point. Can't sell your house without proof that your lateral doesn't leak. The city issues the proof. The city performs the inspections. You may have seen them out doing those smoke tests in some areas. Lots of plumbing companies can make the repairs. As suggested in the article, call the city for more details about your specific situation.
ReplyDeleteOn the bright side the CA Supreme Court issued the Big Horn Decision a few years ago which in part requires that funds collected by cities for a sewer system be used for that purpose only. Better late than never.
wat happens? you pay, that's what happens
ReplyDeleteYup, you pay and it can be from about $4500 to over $10,000. Nice, huh? The homeowners pay because the city blew the money year after year and fixed nada and got sued. Supposedly the city has a list of the worst laterals and will notify the owners. Compliance is now a condition when you sell your place. Peachy.
ReplyDeleteGuy one street over is spending $7800 minimum as we speak on his lateral. He's not selling but his leaks and it's only going to get more expensive.
ReplyDeleteActually I just heard about one that tested out ok
ReplyDeleteanother money grab and blame game by city hall
the city sewer system has completely failed, so they try to pass the buck to the homeowner.
Point of sale is not the only thing that triggers a sewer lateral test,any remodel $5,000 or more also means the line must be tested.
ReplyDeleteAre seniors exempt Tom?
ReplyDeleteSeniors are not exempt and the cost is more like $7,500 to get everything done. The bank loan will not fund until this is done. Just had this done about three months ago.
ReplyDeleteThis is the result of a court case settlement and is long over due.
ReplyDeleteThe original developer had installed laterals that were made of basically paper machete.
The expense of this is a private property issue not a public one. There is a program the city is funding, a no interest loan to cover the cost to home owners.
Paper machetes are useless.
ReplyDelete"the original developer had installed laterals that were made of basically paper machete"
ReplyDeleteWhat original developer? Pacifica houses were built by 100's of different developers spanning 50+ years. You're not telling me the same company put in all the laterals.
Anonymous 11:08 is correct in saying there are no exemptions.
ReplyDeleteThe cost will vary depending on plumbing contractor,replacement method and length of sewer line being replaced. Not all sewer laterals need to be replaced,but all must be video when the trigger event happens, at a cost of around $280.00.
Only some areas of the City qualify for the rebate or loan programs but the whole city must comply with the ordinance.
Orangeburg pipe "made from layers of wood pulp and pitch pressed together." That's what was used to build most of the Linda Mar/Sun Valley household sewer systems. I don't know where else. The developer was Oddstead.
ReplyDeleteOlder people with a long memory say Orangeburg pipe was left over from World War II, when metal was needed for war, thus domestically scarce. Plastics may not have been as developed, if so not for long term durability. Think a kind of flow-liner system system is used now.
The type of pipe used in lower Linda Mar is called orangeburg it is made of a type of heavy duty tar-paper. good for maybe 20 years not the 60 plus it has been in the ground.
ReplyDeleteOrangeburg pipe was designed to be used inside war ships were it never got damp or wet.
ReplyDeleteAfter the war we didn't need as many war ships so they sold off all the surplus pipe.
The City is also at fault for not dowing anything to fix this over the last 20 years.
I bet the city sewer system as a hole is leaking far worse then homeowners laterals.
The city worked out a deal with a couple different plumbing contractos to keep the cost of repairs at a set price. We could have a couple more but I know Smelly Mel's and Sewer Rat are two of the plumbing contractors doing the work.
ReplyDeleteI am starting to think Tom Clifford is one of the few forms of intelligent life left in Pacifica.
ReplyDeleteThe rest of you stoners and surfers must be smoking too much hippie weed!
Geez.
ReplyDeleteAll these anonymous posts really make this a hard blog to follow not to mention assign any credibility.
At least there's comments "ANON" 1234.
ReplyDeleteOver at the progressive Riptide where they frown on anon posters you're lucky to see anyone posting at all.
And don't forget you've already paid for this by paying the sewer tax every year. That money was to repair and maintain the system. Rates have gone up steadily. The money became the slush fund for this city and was spent on all sorts of things but not to fix this very very well known problem. Yeah, the sheep were once again fleeced. The Big Horn decision a few years back put a stop to cities using those funds for anything other than the purpose intended but the damage was already done in Pacifica and then the recession hit. And then we got sued by the enviros for polluting the environment and they won. The settlement says if you fix the problem the fines will be less. That's where the homeowner comes in to pay directly for the repair and of course those sewer taxes will increase and we'll be paying those too. I guess this makes us all little enviros supporting the cause. Who knew?
ReplyDeleteSewer Rat and Smelly Mel trucks all over Linda Mar. Plumbers always have work.
ReplyDeleteMy neighbor who is an original 1954 Linda Mar homeowner says back in the day these repairs were often covered by homeowners insurance. He worked in the shipyards and knew the stuff would fall apart so he had his repaired in the 80's under his homeowner's policy. No coincidence that insurers dropped that line of coverage decades ago. Those companies can smell trouble
ReplyDelete20 years out.
Poster with the paper machete@1108
ReplyDeleteSure this needs to be done but we already paid for it when we pay the sewer tax part of our property taxes every year. If we weren't run by fools this would have been taken care of. What happens with the next lawsuit? There's sure to be one as our infrastructure collapses. Will homeowners get to bear part of that loss?
I had Smelly Mel's come out a few years ago to roto-rooter some pipes. They ended up breaking the ring that held the toilet to the floor, and they cracked some shower tiles.
ReplyDeleteThen they wanted to charge me about $800 to fix what they broke.
Yeah, with them it's like turning an elephant loose in a 5 x7 space.
ReplyDeleteWith tools.
Home owners insurance got wise to paying these claims.
ReplyDeleteIt's mostly not covered these days.
anon541 They knew what was coming.
ReplyDeleteLike earlier post says they can smell trouble years in advance.
Anonymous said...
ReplyDelete"And don't forget you've already paid for this by paying the sewer tax every year."
Oh come on be a sport. We have to keep the sewer plant workers making their six+ figure salaries.
Don't you know this town is here to provide high paying jobs.
Anon749 Well bless your heart. You're right. I need to correct my roll and get right with Jesus. It's so easy to forget why we're here. What greater purpose can our lives have than to provide our civil serpents with every comfort for as long as they live? Thx, anon, for the wake-up call.
ReplyDeletecheck out these sinkholes. Some natural some man made.
ReplyDeletehttp://webecoist.momtastic.com/2008/08/26/incredible-strange-amazing-sinkholes/
@ 822, hope that's not what's happening with our cracked sewer lines.
ReplyDeleteInteresting - wasn't Dolger involved in that mess that became known as Linda Mar - if I recall correctly the sewer was not the only poor construction tech that was used - in 1982 one house broke loose and slid down hill crashing into the house below it - my understanding was that the builder had covered up a winter creek gully and thrown in small drain pipes to carry off the water- and built right on top of the old creek bed - when the storm of 82 hit the poor drainage could not handle the water and floated the house right off the hill side.rls
ReplyDeleteWasn't there going to be a lawsuit because the city paid for a select few laterals to be replaced?
ReplyDelete1218 Yeah, that was before the happy juice went in the water. Now, we all just grin a lot.
ReplyDelete@Nipon Gingko, wasn't that house back in Park Pacifica on Oddstad? Slid down the hill and crushed a home below it. Killed 3 little kids asleep in their beds. Linda Mar had some damage on Valdez I think but nothing like that catastrophe on Oddstad.
ReplyDeleteI believe that was a mudslide that took out that house on Oddstad, not another house. Very sad.
ReplyDeleteIt actually took out two houses. Sort of smashed one over/into the other. Very dangerous situation with mingled debris and massive amount of mud and an unstable hillside. Evening of 1/4/82. Heavy rainfall for days. Huge slide started a couple hundred feet up the hillside and came barreling down. Parents of the 3 children barely got out as their house disappeared behind them. Took the fire department several days to recover the bodies. Kids were still in their beds. Cal Hinton was fire chief at the time. Destroyed that family, parents divorced and moved away to start over. If you were here back then, you can't help but be uneasy when it rains a lot. Not a problem recently. I believe both lots have new homes on them and probably some pretty fancy drainage and diversion on that hillside. During that storm the same thing happened in the Love Creek area in the Santa Cruz Mountains. I think 5 or 6 people died there as a result of mudslides.
ReplyDeleteI was here back then. It was so terrible for that family. Tore them apart. You can still see the scar on the hill near the end of Oddstad. I believe that was an El Niño year, torrential rains soaking the hillsides.
ReplyDeleteThe Velez family later won the lottery
ReplyDeleteThat was a different branch of the family that won the lottery. It was not the ones whos children were tragically killed in a mudslide.
ReplyDelete