L
Luke G
Guest
- Jurisdiction
- Wisconsin
I purchased a 39 acre parcel which includes a house with detached garage, 34 acres of tillable farm land, and a few acres of wetlands in Sheboygan County, WI. I purchased the land for farming purposes with plans to create a lot and zone off the house and sell it. The house has been around for around 100 years and had a septic system installed prior to 1969. The septic system has passed every inspection, including the one taken when I purchased the property 2-1/2 years ago. The normal acreage to divide a house off is 5-10 acres, and I did not want to split off the house with that much, because we want to farm as much of the ground as possible, and i want the house and lot to be as affordable as possible so it would be sell-able. In the process of trying to size the lot, I was told the by the township board, i would have to have soil test done to make sure i would provide adequate land for the "future" construction of a mound system. So i hired a soil tester who does this for septic installations, to check out the proposed lot i suggested and see if it was large enough to accommodate this new system in the "future" if needed. Upon his tests, we did end up widening the lot 25 feet and taking some footage off the back of the lot to keep it close to 1.5 acres. I paid him $600 for his services and figured i was done with this. Well 30 days later, i get a letter in the mail from the county code administrator stating he was condemning my septic system because of the soil tests taken. According to the soil test results from 100 feet away from the current system, which was the closest one, my system does not pass "current" state code. Well i was just floored and asked how he received these soil test results? He told me the soil testers normally turn these tests into the County Planning and Conservation dept. (which is where the code administrator works) and he looked at the results and stated they directly show my system is in violation of the current state code, and for this reason he is condemning my system. If these tests were never turned in, he would not have condemned the system and it would still be in use as long as it showed no signs of failure during regular inspections. It basically is grand-fathered in to be to code until it showed signs of failure or direct violation of the code. My questions are: Can the county use information you paid to acquire against you, especially when you were never informed they were being turned in? Also, according to my soil tester, he has turned in many other soil tests results similar to mine and they never lead to a system condemnation. So what are my legal rights to combat this unjust treatment of the code administrator's judgement (as he made his judgment based off results 100 feet away)? I feel I have a pretty good case, but i also have a house sitting empty, a mortgage to pay, and a buyer who has already given me earnest money that wants this sale to move forward or he's looking for a different house. What do i do? I feel like the county has me cornered, and they know it?
