Petemack1

Afternoon, my wife who us hungarian and I who is British are in the process of buying a house in zalakaros, I am slight worried about sewage, which I believe is just flashed into a hole under the property anyone living in this area aware of this..

hobgoblins

Quite common in rural areas in Hungary but not sure how common in towns like Zalakaros ... if so, there is a land contamination tax to be paid annually of approximately £40 here in Zala County. It's worth checking wether there is mains sewerage at the property boundary so that you can be connected to it ... but in a town such as Zalakaros, that is likely to be the case ...

Petemack1

I believe the property is legally outskirts of the town and we believe it has no access to the sewage system.. We had a tour of the property which is 27m Huf and have never heard of this.. The agent said it was a whole under the tank which then goes into the ground below the tank.. Does that sound normal.. The property was built in the 70s, extention in the 90s and renovated 5 years ago..

hobgoblins

I'm not certain but someone else on here might know but given that there will probably be neighbouring properties, that is possible ... in rural areas, it usually feeds into a hole in the ground some way from the side of the property ... the concrete cover in the field next to my house is where it used to go before being connected to the mains.

scot47

Cesspit or septic tank ? Time to do some reading. I lived for many years in a village in Bulgaria wher there was no integrated sewage system.

Common too in rural parts of North America.
Cesspit - Wikipedia

Septic tank - Wikipedia

hobgoblins

A septic tank sounds more likely given that it's under the property ... the "hole" in the tank being the hole through which it's emptied ...

Petemack1

The agent says it's not emptied but drains through to the soil below the.. In a kind of cesspit kind of way.. I mean the house has been there and is lived in now since the 70s.. Yes after reading definitely a cesspit that leaks into the soil... Thanks for the info.

Peter_in_Hungary

It will be a cesspit and it is not supposed to leak into the ground. What should happen is when the cesspit is full the waste water is pumped out,taken away and processed at the sewage plant. Most (all) cesspits leak because for them not to do so would be unaffordable. At the moment the environmental agencys in Hungary ignore the leaking cesspits because they are happy that villages are now mostly on mains drains (lots of expense and EU money) but there may be a time when rural cesspits become the focus of attention especially in water sensitive areas.

One problem that can occur, depending upon soil type is that the soil around the cesspit can silt up and the leak (drain away) will cease to function. If this happens an alternative option will be needed and the size of the house plot will dictate how easy or expensive this alternative (illegal) solution will be.

The alternative to a cesspit is a septic tank which is a whole different ball game with multiple tanks or chambers, separation chambers and leach fields. And of course if done properly permission from the authorities and periodic testing of the out flow. Guess why most opt for leaking cesspits !

scot47

The two articles from Wikipedia explain the difference. Yours sounds to me like a cesspit which requires punping out from time to time.

Sachina

I live in a remote village in Northern Hungary and bought a house for renovation some 14 years ago. Although mains water, gas and electricity was already in the house, the house itself had no kitchen or bathroom, and only an outside soil toilet. As there was no sewage system I was required to build a holding tank, which had to be approved by the local council. It's in my front garden and emptied twice a year by our local farmer.