Ask a seller in Old Tappan whether their home runs on public sewer or a private septic system, and most give the same answer without checking: "the town has sewers, so I must be connected." That's a guess wearing the clothes of a fact, and New Jersey's disclosure form doesn't accept guesses. It asks about your parcel specifically, and if you don't know the answer, "unknown" becomes part of the legal record of your sale.
Old Tappan does operate its own municipal sewer system. That part is true. What isn't automatic is that every house sits on it.
The Borough Built a Sewer System. It Didn't Retrofit Every Lot at Once.
Old Tappan's Public Works Department maintains a sanitary sewer network that runs over 32 miles of pipe through the borough, supported by seven sewage pumping stations. The ordinance governing that system, Chapter 198 of the borough code, dates back to 1975 and has been amended piece by piece since, which tells you something the sewer map alone doesn't: this infrastructure was built out over decades, not laid down uniformly across the borough in a single project.
That matters for anyone assuming their address falls neatly into "sewer town." The borough still maintains an active process for homeowners connecting to the municipal system for the first time, and that process includes formally abandoning whatever septic system was there before. A licensed contractor has to file a connection permit with the Building Department, and the application gets reviewed against the site plans already on file to confirm every component, tank, seepage pit, dry well, or cesspool, has actually been emptied and properly filled rather than just capped and forgotten. The borough charges a modest fee for this: $100 for a septic tank abandonment, according to the current fee schedule in the building construction code.
A $100 line item sounds trivial. What it tells you isn't. If the borough still processes abandonment permits as a routine matter, that means properties are still making this switch now, in 2026, not just in some earlier decade when the sewer system was first extended. Some of Old Tappan's larger, more secluded parcels, the kind commonly marketed with two- and three-acre lots, sit far enough from a sewer main that connecting was never a foregone conclusion.
The Disclosure Form Asks About Your Lot, Not Your Block
New Jersey's standard Seller's Property Condition Disclosure Statement includes a specific question asking whether, if the property uses a septic system, that system has ever been inspected to confirm it's functioning as represented. The form doesn't ask what your neighbors have. It doesn't ask what the borough's infrastructure looks like in general. It asks about the parcel you're selling.
That specificity is intentional. New Jersey doesn't have a single statewide law mandating septic inspection for every home sale, but the state's own guidance on the matter recommends that anyone purchasing a septic-served property secure an inspection before closing, and 2026 has brought tighter enforcement around property-transfer inspections in most counties, alongside stricter permitting for installations and repairs. Municipalities are increasingly the ones setting the actual rules and windows for when an inspection has to happen relative to a closing date, which means a seller who assumes "the town handles this" is often assuming the opposite of what's true. The borough handles the pipes. The property owner handles the disclosure.
If you've lived in your Old Tappan home for years and never had reason to think about your wastewater system, "unknown" isn't a disqualifying answer on the form. But it is a flag, and flags on a disclosure statement tend to surface again during a buyer's attorney review, at exactly the point in a transaction when nobody wants a new variable introduced.
What a Late Answer Costs You
New Jersey real estate contracts include a standard three-business-day attorney review period after signing, a window built to let either side's lawyer flag problems before the deal is locked in. A septic status that surfaces for the first time during that window, or worse, during a buyer's home inspection a week later, doesn't just add a line to the punch list. It can reset the negotiation entirely.
Here's what the numbers actually look like once a septic question turns into a septic project:
| Step | Typical Cost | Typical Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Septic inspection | $500 to $2,000 | Can often be scheduled within about a week |
| Full system replacement, if the system fails | $15,000 to $35,000 | Runs weeks once permits and health department review are involved |
| Old Tappan septic abandonment / sewer connection permit | $100 filing fee | Contingent on Building Department review of site plans |
The dollar figures aren't the surprising part. It's the timeline column. A $2,000 inspection can happen in days. A $35,000 replacement, or even the borough's own $100 abandonment permit, depends on a review process that runs on the Building Department's schedule, not the closing date on your contract.
Why the Timing Math Changed This Year
This is the part that makes 2026 different from a year ago. Over the three months ending May 2026, Old Tappan's median sale price reached $1.1 million, up 5.8 percent from the same period the year before, while the median price per square foot climbed to $462, up 10.9 percent year over year. Homes are also moving faster. The average time a listing spends on the market before selling dropped to 57 days, down from 77 days the year before.
That compression cuts both ways for a seller. Faster sales are good news for pricing power. But a market where homes sat for 77 days gave sellers real slack to schedule a septic inspection, get the report back, and resolve any findings before a buyer's attorney review clock ran out. At 57 days, that slack has shrunk by nearly three weeks. A septic surprise that would have been a manageable delay in last year's market now lands closer to the middle of an already-compressed transaction, with less room to absorb it without renegotiating price or pushing the closing date.
How to Find Out Before the Form Forces the Question
The fix here isn't complicated, and it doesn't require guessing.
- Contact the borough's Building Department directly and ask whether a sewer connection permit was ever filed for your specific address. Site plans on file will show it either way.
- If your property has never connected, or you're not sure, schedule a septic inspection before you list rather than waiting for a buyer's inspector to raise it first.
- If you're planning to convert from septic to sewer as part of preparing to sell, build the borough's site-plan review timeline into your listing schedule, not just the $100 fee.
A Few Direct Questions
How do I find out if my Old Tappan home is on sewer or septic before I list? Call the borough's Building Department construction office and ask about connection permit history for your parcel. The site plans on file will show whether a sewer connection was ever completed.
Does it make sense to convert from septic to sewer before selling? It depends on your timeline. The abandonment permit itself is a modest $100 fee, but the underlying connection work and any required Building Department review add real weeks. For some sellers, disclosing an existing, well-maintained septic system with a recent inspection report is the faster and more straightforward path to closing.
Will my neighbor's sewer connection show up anywhere in my paperwork? No. The disclosure form and any transfer-related septic inspection apply to your specific parcel. What the rest of the block is connected to has no bearing on what you're required to answer.
Old Tappan's infrastructure story is a good one, a borough that built and still maintains its own sewer system rather than relying entirely on a larger utility. But that story can quietly mislead a seller into skipping a question that the state, and increasingly the borough itself, expects answered with certainty rather than assumption. If you're getting ready to list in Old Tappan and aren't sure which side of that question your house falls on, Team Deutsch can help you get a clear answer early, before it becomes a delay during attorney review. Get Your Home Value and let's map out the timeline together.
