Septic and Wells on a Waterfront Home: What to Check Before You Buy

If you are buying a home on a lake around here, there is a good chance it is on a private well and a septic system. And there is a reasonable chance the home started life as a seasonal cottage and got winterized somewhere along the way.

That combination is where the expensive surprises live. Of everything on this list, septic is the one I would never let a buyer skip.

Michigan has no statewide septic code

This is unusual and worth knowing: Michigan is the only state in the country without a statewide sanitary code governing onsite wastewater systems. Regulation happens at the local health department level, which means the rules — and whether anyone inspects at sale — depend on which county you are standing in.

For Southwest Michigan that means:

• Allegan County — Allegan County Health Department
• Barry County — Barry-Eaton District Health Department
• Kalamazoo County — Kalamazoo County Health & Community Services
• Calhoun County — Calhoun County Public Health Department
• Van Buren and Cass counties — Van Buren/Cass District Health Department
• St. Joseph County — Branch-Hillsdale-St. Joseph Community Health Agency

Some jurisdictions in Michigan operate time-of-sale or time-of-transfer programs requiring an evaluation before a home changes hands; others do not. These programs have changed over the years, so do not assume based on what was true at a sale a few years back. Call the health department for the county the home is in and ask what applies today.

Why lake lots are the hard case

A septic system needs separation — from the water table, from surface water, from the well. On a lake lot you are frequently working with all of the following at once:

• A small lot, platted long before anyone thought about setbacks
• A high water table, because you are next to a lake
• Sandy soil in some spots and heavy clay in others
• A well and a drainfield that both have to fit, at a distance from each other

That is why an older lake cottage can have a system that would not be permittable today. It may work fine. But if it fails, the question is not "what does a new septic cost" — it is whether a conforming system can be sited on that lot at all, and what the health department would require. On a tight lot, the answer can involve an engineered or alternative system at a materially different cost.

The seasonal-to-year-round problem

A system sized for a family using a cottage eight weekends a summer is not sized for four people living there in January. Plenty of lake homes have been converted — insulation, a furnace, a bigger kitchen, a second bath — without the septic ever being revisited.

If the home has been added onto or converted, ask specifically whether the system was upgraded at the same time, and whether a permit was pulled. The health department will have the permit record. A finished basement bathroom that never appeared on a septic permit is a flag worth chasing.

What to actually do

• Order a full septic evaluation, with the tank pumped and opened and the drainfield assessed. A visual "looks fine" is not an evaluation. Pay for the real one.
• Pull the permit record from the county health department: when the system was installed, its size, and what it was approved for.
• Test the well for bacteria and nitrates at minimum. Ask the health department what else is worth testing locally — some areas have known arsenic in the groundwater, and that is a local-knowledge question.
• Find out where both are, physically. Buyers who do not know where the drainfield is park on it.
• Ask about the well's age, depth, and casing. A shallow well near a lake is a different proposition than a deep drilled one.

One more reason to care

Failing septics around a lake are a water-quality problem for everyone on that lake, which is why so many lake associations push for inspection programs. If you end up owning on the water, you have a stake in that beyond your own system.

If you want the sales record for a specific lake while you are weighing a home, every lake I track is at jobrienhomes.com/lakes — including the smaller Barry County lakes like Wall Lake, Fair Lake, and Gilkey Lake, where converted cottages are common.

If you want a hand with this

I grew up in Plainwell and I have been on and around these lakes my whole life. If you are looking at a waterfront home and want someone to actually check the septic permit record and the well before you write an offer, call or text me at (269) 247-6868, or send me a note. If you already own on a lake here and just want to know what things are selling for, every lake I track is at jobrienhomes.com/lakes.