Guest not reporting septic system issue!!

[Traci150]

Hello,

We recently encountered a tough situation with our last guest.  When they checked out (Sunday July 18,2021) my cleaning person noticed a missing pillow and a broken dish sponge holder (I purchased in Key West, FL).  No Biggie, When I message the guest to inquire about these things she mentioned we might have a sewer backup.  This threw me for a loop!!  I then asked her what she meant, were the toilets backing up?  She said "NO, there's a lot of water in the back of the house"  I then asked my cleaners to check and send me pictures.  Sure enough the sewage was seeping in the back yard.  I called the guest to ask why we were not contacted and was told,   "she started to smell something on their 2nd day but, she grew up down there (OBX, NC) and sometimes it smelled like that".  I then assured her it NEVER smells like that especially at our property.  So the guests just kept using the toilets for the remainder of their vacation (ANOTER 5 days!!!) making the situation worse.  We had to call the septic company (ON A SUNDAY $$$$$) for an immediate service call as we had new guests checking in in 4 hours.  Septic came and determined it was clogged and the pipe to the tank had been broken (located in the drain field)  Now we had to call a plumber (AGAIN Sunday SERVICE CALL $$$$$)  Needless to say, we got it fixed but not before our next arriving guests.  They could not use any of the restrooms (3hours) until the pipe was replace in which they were not too happy.  My question is: Should the previous guest be liable for any of the costs due to the negligence of NOT notifying us as soon as the problem arose?  The other fact is, we wouldn't have know about this if I hadn't reached out to the guest to inquire about the missing item and broken sponge holder....

I'd love to hear your opinions on how you'd handle this.

Thanks,

Traci Carlson 

[Helen427]

Hi @Traci150 
We grew up with Septic Tank systems and have friends who work for Council and part of their role is with wastewater.

Did you try claim the damage back through Insurance?

Those broken pipes are a jolly nuisance at the best of times.

It's unfortunate your Guests didn't advise you during their stay, however there may be a genuine reason for not doing so, including not knowing where it was coming from.

When living in rural areas one needs to check water lines regularly.

All the best from Auckland, New Zealand