Septic & Occupancy

[Michael Peters]

My wife and I are looking to purchase our first property with hopes to turn it into a STR. Its a 4BR/3BA lake house in the woods of Wisconsin and on septic. During disclosure we found out that while it is a 4BR the septic is only rated for a 3BR. I feel like that would affect the max occupancy when listing it for rentals but am still trying to get my head around local regulations regarding STR.

Am I correct in assuming that we can only rent the home for a max occupancy of what the septic can "handle" based on local regulations? Thus turning what we thought was a 8-10 occupancy to a 6 occupancy? Does anyone have experience in the dirty world of septic and renting that could provide some insight?

Thanks!

Mike

[Marcus Auerbach]

Quote from @Michael Peters:

My wife and I are looking to purchase our first property with hopes to turn it into a STR. Its a 4BR/3BA lake house in the woods of Wisconsin and on septic. During disclosure we found out that while it is a 4BR the septic is only rated for a 3BR. I feel like that would affect the max occupancy when listing it for rentals but am still trying to get my head around local regulations regarding STR.

Am I correct in assuming that we can only rent the home for a max occupancy of what the septic can "handle" based on local regulations? Thus turning what we thought was a 8-10 occupancy to a 6 occupancy? Does anyone have experience in the dirty world of septic and renting that could provide some insight?

Thanks!

Mike

I would be surprised to find a lake house on a legal septic system, most likely the house has a holding tank that needs to be pumped every few weeks depending on usage. The good news would be that expanding to a bigger holding tank is not as costly as replacing a whole spectic system (especially a mound system).