Cesspool to septic conversion in Hawaii

[Cassie Chun]

Cesspools are relatively common in certain areas of Hawaii. I have a fix & flip property with a cesspool and the wastewater department will not approve/sign off on our building permit until the cesspool is upgraded to a septic system. If anyone has experience with this process I’d love to hear from you.

Some questions:

1. Is it possible to sell a house with septic plans drawn up by a licensed engineer but pass the tank installation onto the buyer? (Sell the house with an open permit)

2. Does it make more sense to pay the $20k to get the tank installed and then increase the list price to recoup that money? I’m just not sure how much a septic increases the value of a home that was previously on cesspool.

Any and all advice welcome. I’d be curious if any Hawaii real estate agents have thoughts on this.