It is always a good idea to confirm with the city/govt entitiy that handles the sewer to see where things are. In the Spokane area, if you are in an area scheduled to get sewer but it has not come in yet, you want to know that. It will cost about 1200-2500 for the work and about 5k for the "right" or obligation. IF it was coming, but not yet done, the lien may not show. Here, you will not have a choice other than hook up today or hook up within, I believe, 2 years. If you never do, you will still be billed monthly and still have to pay the hook up fee.
I had a hundred year old house the city said had been hooked to the sewer system based on a "dye test". It had not. The city had claimed it was, therefore, they had to pay the bulk of the costs of hookup. Thankfully, we checked. You always check with the responsible authority, the city in that case. The problem in the quesioner's case is this check was not made. - Thu Apr 30 2009, 11:20