If you’re buying on Bow Lake, the septic system is the thing the whole town is paying attention to right now. Read the inspection like it matters, because around here it does.
Since 2021 Bow Lake has had six cyanobacteria bloom warnings and four alerts. The town beach has been closed and the lake restricted for a total of about 75 days. Voters put up $25,000 in 2025 to start a watershed plan, another $81,500 or so in grants came in on top of it, and septic systems are one of the first things being studied.
When the Planning Board talked through options in 2024, one idea on the list was a mandatory septic inventory with upgrades to state-approved, year-round systems triggered by building permits, ZBA approvals and property transfers. Nothing like that has been adopted. Not yet. But a buyer ought to know it’s been discussed.
Then there’s the ADU piece. Strafford’s rule is that if an accessory dwelling adds bedrooms, a state-approved septic system sized for that extra load has to be on record with the town. Close to one in ten of the lake owners who answered the town’s survey said they have an ADU. If the place you’re buying does, ask to see that approval.
Ask the seller for the pumping receipts along with the NHDES approval. The town survey suggests plenty of lake tanks go years between pump-outs, and a decade-long gap tells you more than the listing will.
Paperwork first. Is there an NHDES approval on file? How many bedrooms does it list, and does that match the house — or did the walkout basement, the bunkroom over the garage, or the apartment out back get added later?
Then the system. We pump the tank so we can see inside it empty: walls, baffles, inlet, outlet, filter. Walk the field and probe it for soft or wet ground. Measure, roughly, how far the field sits from the water.
You get a written report that says what’s there and what shape it’s in. And if the honest answer is “this works for a couple on weekends, not for the eight people you’re planning on,” you hear that before you close.
A full pump-and-inspect evaluation generally runs $400–$700 with the pumping included, so you’re not paying for two trips. Shoreland site assessments under RSA 485-A:39 are quoted by the property — send us the address and the closing date.
For developed waterfront where any part of the system is in the protected shoreland, yes. RSA 485-A:39 requires a site assessment by a permitted designer before the property transfers. That covers most homes on the lake and on the islands. Line it up when you list so it doesn’t hold up the closing.
Not today. The Planning Board discussed transfer-triggered septic upgrades in 2024 as one option for protecting Bow Lake, and a watershed plan is being written now. Nothing has been adopted. It’s still smart for a buyer to price in what an upgrade would cost if the system is old.
Whether the septic approval on file covers those bedrooms. Strafford requires a state-approved system that accommodates an ADU’s extra bedrooms to be on record with the town. If the approval lists three bedrooms and the property now has five, that’s a conversation to have with the seller before closing, not after.
Island properties are tougher, since there’s no driving a truck to them and half the island owners in the town survey said their systems sit within 75 feet of the water. Call us with the specifics and we’ll tell you honestly what we can and can’t do for that one.
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