Connecting to mains sewerage

[ExchangedCat]

We've just moved into a new property which currently uses a septic tank. I contacted the water company to see if they had plans to connect the street in future and it turns out all the neighbouring properties are already connected! I've enquired about adding our property too, but does anyone have experience of this? Is there a large cost involved which would explain why the previous owner didn't do it? Or does it mean a lot of disruption?

It seems like a no brainer to get connected so if anyone can tell me what I'm missing I'd appreciate it!

We looked into it with Thames Water and a house we were going to buy. The connection fee was about £2k with us organising digging and refilling the trench which has the be deep so would need a mini digger. The connection we were looking at was about 20 feet as the main sewer already ran across the property right past the septic tank. We decided not to buy so didn't go any further.

Thanks Lone that's quite pricey and so probably the reason. Our searches didn't pick up that connection was an option

If your septic tank is in good order, there is no pressing need to go onto mains sewage. You should also get a reduction in water rates for having a septic tank which goes to offset the cost of an annual pump out!
Our tanks (there are two chambers) are 50+ years old. We had them inspected with a view to putting a treatment plant in because there is no mains drainage where we are and the environment agency rules about discharge into dykes and watercourses change in January.
The contractor said they were working well and that we just needed to put new tail drains in for us to be compliant and that he could not foresee any problems in the next 20 years or so.
Cost of the new tail drains was around £2K as opposed to £5K for the treatment plant.

Thanks rslsys - who would be best placed to inspect and advise us? Since moving in we've discovered the previous owner had, at best, a passing acquaintance with honesty (no idea why, the things they've been evasive/downright untruthful about are so odd) so I'm disinclined to trust everything they've told us until now

Do you know when the tank(s) we're last emptied? When there were 5 of us in the house, we had ours done annually. 3 x DD have now flown the nest but we still have an annual empty!
There is a build up of sludge over time and an empty will stop your tank overflowing into the tail drains & blocking them.
You also have to remember that you should not flush anything down the toilet (with the exception of soft toilet paper) unless you have eaten or drunk it first!
You should also check your cleaning products and washing detergents are septic tank friendly. If you kill off the bugs in your tank, it will need emptying and then priming with a bucket of material from another tank!
Local environmental health should be able to give you the numbers of contractors who empty tanks, or may offer it as a service themselves. Contractor can normally give an option on the tank once it is empty, or can recommend someone who can.
If you don't know when it was last emptied, it will do no harm to have it done.
Life with a septic tank is not as complicated as I may have made it look, it's mostly common sense 😁