Oh boy, what do I do now? (plumbing issue/nightmare/legal battle/kerfluffle)

Ok, I bought this house in October. Went through an agent, had an inspection, had disclaimers, all that stuff.  There was an issue that was related to the connection of municipal water and sewer that the seller claimed he didn't know about. The seller took care of it and we moved forward.  

At the same time the same seller was selling the lot to our west. The homeowner to the west of that lot bought it, partially cleared if over the late spring/early summer and it's great for us, as no house will be built there.  

Today that neighbor to our west comes a knocking. The neighbor over there has been trying to figure out why his lot isn't draining like he thought it should be since he's not spending time on the lot. Turns out when my house was built, for some ungodly reason instead of tying the laundry drain to the septic tank on the east side of the house, they ran it into that lot to the west and it's just been dumping over there for 30 years.

I shudder to think of what it'll cost to bust my floor up (Florida house, on a slab) to run pipe from the west side of my house to the east side of the house. The neighbor is incredibly cool with all of this. He even said "I'll help you. We can just cut the pipe, turn it 90º and dump in over there". "Over there" is another part of HIS LOT! I'm not doing that. Cool as he may be, I'm sure it's not legal, and it's simply not cool to dump my laundry water on his lot. 

Here's my question for the hive, even though I know nothing you say will be legally binding. Here's what's running through my head:

• The builder clearly build the house wrong, but it's been 30 years so the builder is probably gone. Even if the builder is in business, there's probably nothing to be done.  
• Should that not have been on SOME disclosure for the sale of this house, or the sale of the lot? 

Am I totally hosed here? Do I really have to pay many thousands to have my floor broken up from west to east, pipe layed, and re-tiled? What options do I have? 

In reply to DrBoost :

You're making too much of it.  Gray water drainage like that used to be totally legal in many areas.

Cut the pipe and install the 90 degree fitting your neighbor suggested and move on with life.

Run a new drain around the house and tie into the sewer line.  It's best to do this right so it's not an issue when you sell.  No reason to bust up a slab.

There is no sewer, it's a septic. I'd have to wrap the pipe around the house to get to it, crossing under the driveway and a patio. Sounds horrific. I'm going to look into the proper way to handle a grey water drain. I did some reading and, like Indy said, it's not terribly uncommon. We already use natural soap, so that's a plus. 

In reply to DrBoost :

Search the term "dry well" during your research.

Fairly common here, not sure about Sandy soil Florida 

Indy - Guy said:

In reply to DrBoost :

Search the term "dry well" during your research.

Fairly common here, not sure about Sandy soil Florida 

This.  Its a greywater drain, dig a dry well and call it a day.   Think of it as a mini septic system which doesnt have to deal with the biological waste of a real septic system.

Thanks for the proper term to research. 

IF it is only....ONLY...laundry water you can probably do the dry well. Just don't let it clog up with tons of lint. If you can't get that to work you could even pump it over to the septic and end up using a much smaller pipe. If you are ok with a much smaller pipe wrapping around your building that is..

Could you install a small septic tank just for that drain (if you don't like/can't do a dry well?

Prober thing is to install a lift station just outside the house and pump it around to your main sewer line or tank. 

https://www.sumppumpsdirect.com/Liberty-Pumps-P382LE51-Sewage-Pump/p16114.html?gclid=Cj0KCQjwz96WBhC8ARIsAATR251-MJTzqwEer63Ri-HiMKMMdH_WggVKJWJou96IAzHD7jy-wIYKjowaAiUGEALw_wcB

If you want to save some money I can show you how to build your own for half that. Then bury a two inch pipe from the lift station to your tank one sewer line.

Came here to suggest a lift station. 
 

Grey water systems are common, but frowned upon by many authorities, and not legal in many locations for new installs.  Be careful modifying... if you ask enough questions to make health dept officials aware, you will be required to do all modifications in accordance with current ordinances.  "Cut the pipe and install the 90" may not be an option.

If the neighbor is happy with the solution, I'd run with it. Just don't ask permission if you don't want to know. 
 

One potential problem with the lift station.. your septic may not have the capacity for the additional load.  There is a reason they didn't connect to it.

K.I.S.S.

Haha, drywells and grey drains are like Fight Club...  First rule is you don't talk about their existence. 

Our old home had one, and we did ultimately end up building a pump station/access point to get it across to our leachfield for the same reasons you're dealing with- seasonally poor drainage.  It was a solid weekend's worth of work, about $500 total in supplies, and a sore back for a few days, but overall not complicated for an average DIY homeowner.  I'm absolutely positive it isn't up to current code, but it's 100% better, safer, and more environmentally friendly than how it used to be, so that was my justification.  Remember, it's better to ask forgiveness than permission sometimes...

In my area of FL it would have been legal 30 years ago and Seller would not have had to disclose (but shame on your inspection guy/realtor for not catching it).

Another vote for "do it the right way." You, or somebody close to you, will have to sell at some point and it's easier to have everything above board. In my area I think the solution would be a lift station.

One of our rentals had a similar setup. When you sell a house here it has to pass a government inspection, and Dry wells were no longer allowed. So I disconnected  it and rerouted it inside the house to the septic system. I also gave the new owners instruction to to reconnect because I knew the septic wouldn't have capacity. 

In reply to CrustyRedXpress :

There is no reason that a home inspector or realtor would ever have known. It's possible the previous owner didn't even know.

Realtors don't inspect houses.  Their obligation is to get the seller to sign a disclosure statement which is a standard form. If gray water systems aren't on the check list, they don't ask.  If they are on the list, they ask, but that doesn't mean the seller is aware of the system's existence.  Home Inspectors ONLY inspect what is visible.  They never open things, and definitely would not have opened a wall to find the routing of the laundry drain.  They also would never have inspected the neighboring property.

The only person who might have had a chance of seeing it is a land surveyor on the neighboring property.

Its a pre-existing condition.  In most locations it's not illegal until you modify it. 

Check out grey water gardens too

The inspector never could have known. The pipe on my property wasn't visible until a few weeks ago. The other lot was completely wild until a few months ago so the owner of that lot didn't know either. I'm going to do a dry well. I'll do a 90º on my side of the fence and take it south a few dozen feet because my well head is a few dozen feet to the north. The well is only for irrigation, and we already only use natural laundry soap.

Thank you all for clarifying this. I'm glad the neighbor is being cool about this.