If your Tucson-area property is on septic, the sale has one extra required step that a sewer-connected house does not. Here is the sequence, in the order it actually happens.
Not required, but this is where sellers save themselves the most grief. If you have owned the place a long time and have no idea when the tank was last pumped or where the disposal field runs, a pre-listing inspection converts a large unknown into a known while you still have unlimited time to deal with it. A clean report is also a small selling point on an outlying property where buyers are already a bit nervous about septic.
Arizona requires the inspection within six months before transfer, so timing-wise almost anything works on paper. In practice, escrow is your real constraint. Order it immediately. The field work is a few hours, but if the inspection finds something, the repair timeline, and possibly a permit, is what determines whether you close on schedule.
The inspector locates and opens the tank, pumps it so the interior can be examined, evaluates the tank structure and baffles, checks liquid levels and flow, walks the disposal field looking for surfacing effluent or ponding, and checks permit records against what is actually in the ground. Expect a few hours on site. Somebody should be home, and the inspector needs vehicle access reasonably close to the tank.
If it passes, you provide the report to the buyer and move on. If it does not, you repair, and the report tells you specifically what. Most findings are ordinary: baffles, lids, risers, a failed pump, a root-damaged line. The expensive outcome is a failed disposal field, which usually needs a permit and real time, and is the reason step 2 exists.
This is a legal requirement, not a courtesy. The seller must provide the completed report to the buyer before the property transfers.
The buyer files the Notice of Transfer with the regulating authority, generally within fifteen days of the transfer. That part is on them, though it is worth mentioning at closing because buyers new to Arizona routinely do not know about it.
The seller. The rule puts the duty on the transferor. Buyers sometimes agree to split it in negotiation, but the obligation is yours and the choice of inspector is yours too, because no agency publishes an approved list.
When was it last pumped. How many people lived here. Where is the field. Has it ever backed up. Having honest answers, ideally with a pumping receipt, does more for buyer confidence on an outlying Tucson property than almost anything else you can do.
Call (520) 389-5764 and we will get the inspection scheduled around your closing date.
Arizona requires it before the property changes hands · Reports turned around fast · Serving all of Pima County
Call (520) 389-5764