All Forum Posts by: Alexander Lommel

Cary,

I thought that was what you were talking about. The DEC is the department of environmental conservation. They are the authorities at a local level that oversee septic and injection wells.

As far as tying into a city system, if the drainage is not above the city storm water system, then you will need to install a mechanical lift, to get the water up enough to drain. 

Again your best bet is trouble shooting the old system. A plumber would be my first call. Have him come and scope the system with a camera and see if there are any major blockages. 

This is exactly what my background is and if you want to send me a private message to get my phone number, I'd be happy to help you through it. 

Waiting on forum posts can be a bit tedious. 

just read Nates comments, am I misunderstanding the issue? Is it just potholes that are the problems or is it a drainage system?

One other thing... You might be able to tie into the city storm drain with your discharge if it's permissible by your municipality.

Wish I was there to help. That's exactly what our specialty is here in Alaska. If your pipes are clear and the system is just no longer taking any water it might be time to have the rock excavated out and a new injection well put in place. Any system that reintroduces water into the ground is considered a class 5 injection well and falls under the purview of the DEC. you might be opening a whole can of worms if you go that route. 

Soil testing to make sure contaminates are not being introduced into the ground and thus the ground water has to be done if DEC gets involved. Also  perc testing to make sure the ground is capable of handling and filtering the water being introduced. 

Your best bet would be to contact a plumbing company and see if it's as simple as a clogged drain pipe first. They can also scope it to see if there is any major blockages I.e. Broken pipes or roots.

Only as a last resort do you want to start digging up a class 5 injection well that was installed 50 years ago!

You might want to check with your local DEC office to see if they have any as-builds for it on file. (Doubt it though)

Good luck!

Rajeev, 

She did fill out an application and passed the tenant screening prior to my accepting the check. The verbal understanding at the time of my removing it from the market was for exactly that. I told her I would remove it from the market and call off the other showings if she would make a holding deposit. 

At this point she has agreed to accept the prorated amount of the deposit and accept it as payment in full.

Obviously this has become a lesson learned and one that I won't repeat in the future. I already have added to my portfolio a document outlining a "non-refundable holding fee" that will be converted over to a security deposit at time of signing. I'm also taking Mike S.'s advice and adding language about holding deposits to my application.

Quick update... After stating my position to her in an email she has agreed to my original offer of reimbursement minus the prorated amount of damages she caused me.

Thanks for all of the input. 

Here's a snippet from Alaska tenant law 

That's a good idea to add it to the application. 

The posting of payment is a legally binding agreement. I would never have taken the rental off of the market without collateralizing the agreement against some form of payment. The fact that she verbally agreed to rent the property and collateralize it against a deposit caused me to remove the rental listings and call off prospective tenants (some that were on their way to view the property that evening). I had two other interested parties as well that I called and turned down for the rental because she agreed to rent the property. The damages she caused against us by backing out of our agreement began the moment we agreed to take the property off of the market for her.

Saying I have "zero chance of prevailing in court" is simply not true.

I had a check in hand and a verbal agreement. The only reason I would take it off of the market would be against some form of collateral. Obviously in the future I'll get something in writing so they can't claim not to have understood the purpose of the deposit. What I'm looking for here is how to proceed now that I'm already in this situation.