A buyer's attorney asks for the septic inspection report. A lender wants proof the system works before releasing funds. And in Franklin, Michigan, there is a real chance the paperwork simply does not exist, not because anyone did anything wrong, but because no county ordinance ever required it to be created.
That surprises people. Most buyers assume a home sale automatically triggers some kind of check on the well and septic system, the way a home inspection is assumed to happen even though it too is technically optional. In parts of Michigan, that assumption holds. In Oakland County, where Franklin sits, it does not.
The Inspection Nobody Is Required to Order
Michigan is the only state without a statewide sanitary code, which means septic and well oversight gets set county by county and township by township. Some counties have responded by passing their own Time of Sale or Time of Transfer ordinances that force a septic evaluation whenever a property changes hands. Washtenaw, Grand Traverse, Emmet, and Charlevoix are the counties that show up most often with this kind of rule, and it is not a coincidence that all four have heavy concentrations of lakefront and rural septic-dependent housing stock.
The standard well and septic addendum used across Michigan real estate transactions makes the geography explicit. It asks the buyer and seller to check a box confirming whether the property sits in Macomb, Washtenaw, or Wayne County, because those are the counties where formal on-site sewage and water supply evaluation rules apply at the time of sale. Oakland County is not one of the counties named on that form. Franklin, an Oakland County village, falls outside any mandatory point-of-sale septic evaluation.
That does not mean the system goes unchecked forever. It means the checking, when it happens, comes from somewhere other than the sale itself.
The Village's Own Three-Year Clock
Franklin runs its own compliance cycle, and it has nothing to do with real estate closings. Under the Village's sewer and septic rules, any homeowner with a septic system is required to pump and inspect the tank once every three years, then file proof of that pumping along with a $25 Septic Operating Permit with the Village.
That cycle runs on its own calendar. A system could have been pumped and inspected eleven months ago, or it could be approaching the end of its three-year window with the paperwork still pending, and neither timing has any relationship to when the home happens to sell. A buyer closing on a Franklin house in the second year of that cycle is not entitled to a fresh inspection just because ownership is changing hands. The permit trail exists, but it was built for the Village's own recordkeeping, not for transaction due diligence.
For anyone who wants to see whether a specific address has current records, the Village's own sewer and septic information page is the starting point, and it is worth checking before assuming the sale process will surface that history automatically.
Not Every Franklin Street Runs the Same Way
Layered on top of the septic question is a second one: not every Franklin property is on septic in the first place, and not every non-septic property is on the same kind of sewer.
The Village's own water page states plainly that Franklin's sole water source is private wells across the entire village. That single fact set off a chain of municipal activity. In September 2020 the Village Council passed a resolution on safe water, which led to a village-wide water survey asking residents about their own experience with well water quality. The results were compiled by the Village's engineering firm, and the issue was significant enough that Franklin formed a standing Water Sub-committee made up of Council members, which still meets monthly ahead of the regular Village Council meeting and is publicized in the weekly Village newsletter.
Sewer service is a separate and more fragmented picture. Some Franklin streets run on conventional gravity sewer. Others run on a pressure sewer system that depends on grinder pump stations, a setup governed by its own section of Village code and represented on an official Pressure Sewer System Map kept by the Village building department. Billing and grinder pump concerns for those pressure-sewer streets go not to the Village but to the Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner. So two houses across the street from each other in Franklin can have entirely different utility profiles: one on well and septic with its own three-year permit cycle, the other on well water paired with a pressure sewer system billed through a county office, each with its own maintenance obligations and its own failure points.
None of that shows up on a listing sheet. It shows up when someone starts asking which system serves which address.
What the Disclosure Form Actually Asks, and Doesn't
Michigan's Seller Disclosure Statement, required under the state's Seller Disclosure Act, does ask about all of this. The well section asks for the type of well, its depth and diameter, its age, its repair history, and whether the water has been tested. The septic section asks about the condition of the tank and drain field. Sellers are also asked when the tank was last pumped and whether the system has ever failed or needed major repair.
What the form does not do is require the seller to go find any of that out. It is explicitly a disclosure of what the seller already knows, not a mandate to commission new testing. A seller who genuinely does not know the age of the well or the last pumping date can mark the answer unknown and still be in compliance, as long as that is the truth. The legal exposure only shows up when a seller knows about a problem and stays quiet about it, which is exactly what played out in the Michigan Court of Appeals case Pilcher v. Benoit, where a buyer discovered a faulty septic tank cover after closing and the court found there was a real factual question about whether the seller had known about it beforehand.
For buyers financing with FHA or VA loans, there is a practical backstop the county ordinance doesn't provide: those lenders will require proof that the septic system functions before they will approve the loan, which makes financing the de facto trigger for inspection in a lot of Franklin transactions. Conventional buyers and cash buyers don't get that same built-in check unless they ask for it themselves.
The financial stakes of skipping that step are not small. A failing drain field typically runs $5,000 to $15,000 to replace depending on soil conditions, a cracked or corroded tank runs $3,000 to $7,000 to replace, and even routine pumping costs $300 to $500. Those numbers matter most as negotiation leverage: a documented problem found before an offer is signed is a repair credit conversation, while the same problem discovered after closing is a dispute.
What This Looks Like at the Closing Table
For a seller preparing to list a Franklin home, the practical version of all this is straightforward:
- Pull whatever Septic Operating Permit records exist with the Village and confirm where the property sits in its three-year cycle
- Have the tank pumped and inspected before listing even though no ordinance requires it at time of sale, since a clean report removes one of the biggest unknowns for a buyer
- Confirm in writing which utility system actually serves the property, since well-and-septic, well-and-gravity-sewer, and well-and-pressure-sewer all carry different disclosure answers and different buyer questions
For a buyer, the version is just as direct: don't assume Oakland County did this work already, because it didn't. Ask for the Village permit history, ask when the well was last tested, and if financing doesn't force an inspection, request one anyway before the contingency period closes.
A Few Common Questions
Does Oakland County require a septic inspection when I buy a home in Franklin? No. The standard well and septic addendum used in Michigan real estate transactions names Macomb, Washtenaw, and Wayne as the counties where formal on-site sewage and water supply evaluation rules apply before a property can transfer. Oakland County, where Franklin sits, is not one of them, so nothing at the county level forces a septic check during a Franklin closing.
What is the Village of Franklin's septic rule, and does it protect a buyer? The Village requires septic owners to pump and inspect their tank once every three years and file a $25 Septic Operating Permit. It's a standing municipal requirement, not something tied to a sale, so it can't be relied on to guarantee a recent inspection at the moment a specific home changes hands.
What if my Franklin home is on sewer instead of septic? Some Franklin streets run on gravity sewer and others run on a pressure sewer system with grinder pump stations, documented on the Village's own Pressure Sewer System Map. Billing for the pressure sewer system runs through the Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner rather than the Village itself.
Is Franklin's well water considered safe? The Village's water page describes an ongoing process rather than a settled answer: a 2020 Council resolution, a village-wide water survey, and a standing Water Sub-committee that continues to meet monthly. Individual well testing remains the only way to know the condition of water at a specific address.
If you're preparing to list a Franklin home, or you're far enough along in a purchase that the well and septic questions are starting to matter, Meredith Colburn can walk you through exactly what to pull from the Village, what to ask a buyer's lender, and how to get ahead of the inspection before it becomes a closing week surprise.
