City Council Agrees to Additional Study of Point of Sale Septic Tank Inspections

• Realtors Convince Officials to Move Slowly on Program Specifics

BY BILL KOENEKER

Urged by the local real estate community to take a slower, closer look, the Malibu City Council this week agreed to have its staff work with the Malibu Association of Realtors for the proposed point of sale inspection of septic systems.

City officials said the primary function of the proposal is to provide an inspection and status report for existing on-site wastewater treatment systems during real estate transactions.

The efforts are described as an attempt to identify and upgrade those systems that might be failing and may pose a risk to the public health.

Municipal officials paint the program as a means to assist the real estate community and the buyers and sellers with a standardized approach for inspection of OWTS. The outcome of the proposal would result in the issuance of an operating permit.

Councilmember Jeff Jennings likened it to a termite inspection.

However, some Realtors said the matter had not been fully vetted with the real estate community, which is the primary business sector in Malibu. Others said there are still too many questions.

“How do we get a septic fixed in 30 days?” asked Realtor Brian Merrick. “What is the cost of a survey? We haven’t heard anything definitive.”

Christine Rodgerson, who is the current president of the Malibu Association of Realtors, said the industry supported the concept but there had never been a presentation to the board.

“We are asking for a delay until the board has a meeting to discuss it. We hope the city and the largest industry [in Malibu] can work together,” she said.

Another Realtor, Terry Lucoff, said the program would not effectively address the issue of contamination of the ocean. “It won’t alleviate the program. The point of sale [proposal] does not solve the problem,” he added.

His colleague, Paul Grisanti, said there was no information on how much the inspections would cost. “I think it will be much more expensive and [homeowners] won’t get out for under $5000,” he added.

Jennings explained that he and the council were willing to have the Realtors explore the issues in depth, but warned the city was constrained in what they could or could not do because of Malibu’s agreement with the Regional Water Quality Control Board.

“The problem is we have to do something like this. We thought this was the less painful. To do it when there is cash,” he said.

City officials also stressed this is one of many options to clean up the waters of Malibu. That the program was a way to establish a database of all of the septic systems in Malibu and that eventually all of the septic systems would be “captured” in the database of the city.

The inspection might require modifications, repairs, complete replacement or no further action. The mechanism for handling the required monies for the necessary work will be the responsibility of the real estate agents and the sellers and buyers, according to a staff report.