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Do I need to pay water & sewer to the city if I have my own well & septic system?

Posted: Nov 1st, 2011 7:30 pm
by imbane
If I buy a house with own well & septic system, do I still need to pay water & sewer to the city? Thanks.

Re: Do I need to pay water & sewer to the city if I have my own well & septic system?

Posted: Nov 1st, 2011 8:19 pm
by gwan
usually only houses in the rural has a well/cistern or a septic system and i think you just have a smaller tax percentage

but if your house does not already have a well/cistern and a septic system then it is unlikely that the city will issue you a permit to build/make one


properties in the rural usually have a different tax percentage and they do not include water/sewer charges

Re: Do I need to pay water & sewer to the city if I have my own well & septic system?

Posted: Nov 1st, 2011 10:47 pm
by fieldhousehandyman
imbane wrote: If I buy a house with own well & septic system, do I still need to pay water & sewer to the city? Thanks.
Generally water and sewage are paid to your electrical utility, who collects them on behalf of the local municipality (water and sewage are local level, not 'regional' or 'county' level charges). If the house you purchase has its own well and septic system, AND does not have any connection to municipal water and sewage, you should not have to pay water and sewage charges. The simplest way to find out is to ask the current owners of the property you are looking at.

Personally, our primary residence is serviced by municipality, and we pay water and sewage to our hydro provider. Our cottage is not serviced by the municipality, and we do no pay water and sewage.

Re: Do I need to pay water & sewer to the city if I have my own well & septic system?

Posted: Nov 3rd, 2011 2:02 pm
by imbane
Thank you, guys! yes, it's a rural property.

Re: Do I need to pay water & sewer to the city if I have my own well & septic system?

Posted: Nov 3rd, 2011 2:38 pm
by CaptSmethwick
Our house is zoned rural residential. We do not have access to municipal sewage or water and therefore have a septic tank and drilled well. Our property taxes are supposed to be lower for this reason but finding rural-urban comparables is a tad challenging.

Re: Do I need to pay water & sewer to the city if I have my own well & septic system?

Posted: Nov 3rd, 2011 2:55 pm
by fieldhousehandyman
In theory now, water and sewage charges are now supposed to be separate from property taxes, as in many cases both charges are assessed and billed directly, either as flat rate chargers, or usage based charges. Many jurisdictions now (they are compelled by Ontario Law I think) are billing directly, as well as direct surcharges for stormwater management.

Currently we pay flat rate useage on water and sewage billed by Erie Thames Hydro on behalf of East Zorra-Tavistock, but I can pretty much guarantee you that our towhship portion of our property taxes did not go down a corresponding amount when the change was made. At the cottage we pay none, as the service is not provided, but of course our property tax is much higher than a serviced in-town property, as we have private waterfront, thus a much greater assessed value. Our mill rate is probably lower, which does reflect the fact we are not provided water and sewage. Fair enough to me.

Re: Do I need to pay water & sewer to the city if I have my own well & septic system?

Posted: Nov 5th, 2011 8:47 pm
by 38racing
CaptSmethwick wrote: Our house is zoned rural residential. We do not have access to municipal sewage or water and therefore have a septic tank and drilled well. Our property taxes are supposed to be lower for this reason but finding rural-urban comparables is a tad challenging.
In theory if you were right on the boundary of the service and your neighbour had an identical house but had municipal water and sewer then one would expect that your neighbour would have a higher market value than you , hence higher assessment and hence higher taxes. I have no idea if anyone has calculated the life cycle cost of a well and septic compared to paying the water/sewage charges. I live in an amalgamated rural township. Two of the villages have water and sewer , the rest on well/septic. The villages pay a water/sewage charge in addition to their taxes as I think we all pay the same $tax/ 1000 assessment. One problem is that one village had meters and the other was flat rate, no meters. Lots of arguments over that. They have now joined the 2 water systems and are installing meters in the 2nd village.

Re: Do I need to pay water & sewer to the city if I have my own well & septic system?

Posted: Nov 5th, 2011 10:16 pm
by CaptSmethwick
38racing wrote: In theory if you were right on the boundary of the service and your neighbour had an identical house but had municipal water and sewer then one would expect that your neighbour would have a higher market value than you , hence higher assessment and hence higher taxes. I have no idea if anyone has calculated the life cycle cost of a well and septic compared to paying the water/sewage charges. I live in an amalgamated rural township. Two of the villages have water and sewer , the rest on well/septic. The villages pay a water/sewage charge in addition to their taxes as I think we all pay the same $tax/ 1000 assessment. One problem is that one village had meters and the other was flat rate, no meters. Lots of arguments over that. They have now joined the 2 water systems and are installing meters in the 2nd village.

The bold part is what I meant by the challenges in finding rural-urban comparables.