The process for homeowners looking to register their private sewage treatment systems with SEPA used to take approximately 20 days on average, from submitting their request to receiving the permission certificate. The same process will now take around five minutes, with home owners receiving their registration certificate instantly.
The new accessible, user-friendly, cloud-based payment system will also provide helpful information and guidance.
SEPA receives around 2500 registrations for private sewage treatment systems per year, meaning the new online service will free up staff from admin to focus on regulatory activities.
If a home is not connected to the mains sewer it probably uses a private sewage treatment system such as a septic tank. By law, septic tanks must be registered with SEPA or home owners could face a monetary fine.
Simon Pattullo, Product Owner in the Digital Licensing team at SEPA, said: “Customers frequently come to us at the last minute when they are about to sell their property and realise they need a registration in place before the sale can go through legally. Any delay on their house sale can cause stress for the customer and places an increased demand on our officers to turn these registrations around quickly.
“This new secure online registration system will bring huge benefits of improvements in speed and service for customers. We are also developing an enhanced service to allow customers to register new private sewage treatment systems, which will go live in 2022.”
Sarah Alexander, solicitor and secretary to the Law Society of Scotland Property Law Committee, said: “SEPA’s new septic tank registration service is an excellent development which will be widely welcomed by both conveyancing solicitors and their clients. Moving home can be a stressful time for homeowners, so improved processes such as this, reduce the potential for issues and delays and contribute to an enhanced and more efficient customer experience.”
You can register your private sewage treatment system here: https://privatesewage-services.sepa.org.uk/
