How to Tell If A Property is on City Sewer or Septic

This is a question I hear from new investors a lot, so I decided to write a short how-to on the subject. As always, if anyone has any questions, please done hesitate to call me at 904-566-6400!

Unfortunately, it is very hard to tell if a property is on city sewer or septic with 100% accuracy, but there are some things you can do that will give you a very good idea. Calling JEA and asking some service rep is useless, they will be wrong as much as they are right.

The next best thing is to submit a service availability request to JEA through their website, this is a little better because the availability department will research the request, and sometimes they even send someone out to the site to check it out… but I have seen them be wrong before too. Here is a link to the webform you need to fill out: http://externalapps.jea.com/svcavail/avail_form.asp

Next, just look on the street your house is on for manhole covers. They should be every 100-300 feet, and if they are there it normally indicates that there is city sewer in the area – but that doesn’t necessarily mean your house is connected to it. Also, even if there isn’t manhole covers, the houses could still be connected to city sewer through the backyard, with the sewer lines running to a parallel street – which I have seen before too.

Finally, you can have a company come out and do a septic inspection – I use A. Carver Septic – 904-384-8999 – ask for Chad, or J.L. Smith Septic – 535-0218 – ask for Jim. They will come out, mark your tanks and drain field, tell you how many square feet your drain field is, and pump your tank for about $200. If you want an inspection letter on your tank, that will be another $100-150. If they don’t find a tank, they should only charge you a trip fee, $50-75, and if you’re a good negotiator you might be able to get out of that.

Using a combination of these methods, you should be able to come to a pretty good conclusion whether you are on city sewer or septic.

Hope this helps!

Alexander Sifakis
Progress Home Buyers, LLC
Project Manager
Alexs@ProgressHomeBuyers.com
2406 University Blvd West
Jacksonville, FL 32217
Office: (904) 755-7777
Cell: (904) 566-6400
Fax: (904) 737-0037
www.ProgressHomeBuyers.com