El Paso County Dropped Its Septic Inspection Mandate. In Black Forest, the Real Checkpoint Just Moved.

For more than a decade, nobody sold a home on a septic system in unincorporated El Paso County without a county-approved inspector signing off first. That rule ended this summer, and if you own or want to buy a well-and-septic home in Black Forest, the change is worth understanding before you assume it makes anything simpler.

On May 27, 2026, the El Paso County Board of Health voted to rescind the mandatory Transfer of Title inspection for onsite wastewater treatment systems, the septic rule that had governed every sale of a septic-served property in the county since 2015. The repeal took effect July 11, 2026. For a neighborhood like Black Forest, where public sewer service essentially doesn't exist and nearly every home relies on a private septic system, that is not a footnote. It is the kind of local governance decision that changes how a listing actually closes.

What the county actually voted to remove

The rule being repealed operated under Colorado Water Quality Control Commission Regulation 43, the state framework that lets counties set their own onsite wastewater standards. Under the old version, El Paso County Public Health required a certified inspector to evaluate the system and file what the county called a Property Sale Acceptance Document before title could transfer. If the system failed, the county could hold up the closing until repairs were made or a Conditional Acceptance was issued.

That requirement is gone. Green Mountain Falls Mayor Todd Dixon, who sits on the Board of Health, pushed for the repeal after arguing the county could not point to a documented health problem tied to septic systems that justified the mandate. As Dixon put it after the vote, describing what the sale process now looks like between the two parties:

"It's totally between the buyer and the seller now."

Seven of the board's eight members voted to remove the mandate. In the same season, right next door, Teller County's commissioners went the opposite direction and added a Transfer of Title inspection requirement of their own, on the recommendation of their own public health department. Two adjacent counties, same state regulation, same month, opposite conclusions.

What the vote didn't touch

Here is where a lot of sellers are going to get the story half right. Removing the county mandate did not remove the seller's legal duty to disclose. Colorado's Seller's Property Disclosure form still asks for the type of sanitary sewer service on the property, the date of the most recent Individual Use Permit, the date of the last inspection, and the date of the last pumping. That form comes from the Colorado Real Estate Commission, not from El Paso County Public Health, and the Board of Health's vote has no authority over it.

The other piece that didn't move is financing. FHA, VA, and USDA loans commonly require a water test and a septic evaluation as a condition of funding, regardless of what the county now requires at the courthouse. A conventional loan may skip that step unless something during the general home inspection raises a flag, but government-backed loans tend to hold the line. So the checkpoint that used to sit with a county inspector now sits with whichever lender is funding the buyer's loan, and that means the requirement a seller faces depends on who is buying, not on a countywide rule that applied the same way to every transaction.

Here is the shift in plain terms:

Why this cuts deeper in Black Forest than in most of the county

El Paso County Public Health estimates there are roughly 30,000 operating septic systems countywide. That number covers everything from small acreage parcels near Fountain to the dense ponderosa pine parcels north of Colorado Springs. Black Forest sits at the far end of that spectrum. It is unincorporated, it has no municipal sewer system, and the vast majority of homes there run on private well and septic by necessity, not by choice. In a subdivision on city sewer, this rule change is background noise. In Black Forest, it touches nearly every listing.

That is also why the friction doesn't disappear so much as relocate. Before July 11, a buyer in Black Forest could count on a uniform, government-verified process no matter who they were or how they were financing the purchase. After July 11, the process depends entirely on what the buyer and seller agree to put in the contract, and on what the buyer's lender requires. A cash buyer and a seller can now skip a septic inspection entirely if both sides are comfortable with that. A buyer using an FHA loan almost certainly cannot, because the lender's requirements haven't changed even though the county's have.

What this means if you're listing or buying in Black Forest right now

If you're selling, the smart move hasn't actually changed much, even though the mandate has. Order a private OWTS inspection anyway, before you list. It used to happen because the county required it. Now it happens because a documented, current inspection report answers the first question most buyers or their agents are going to ask, and it does so before a lender's underwriter asks it for you mid-transaction. Local companies like Uneek Septic Services, which has inspected and pumped systems in El Paso County for 25 years, still perform this evaluation exactly the way they did before, minus the step of filing paperwork with the county.

One caution worth repeating from that pre-2026 era still holds: don't pump the tank right before the inspection. An inspector needs to see the system under normal operating conditions to evaluate the drain field and effluent levels properly. Pump first and you can end up paying for a second visit.

If you're buying, treat the county's silence as your cue to speak up, not as a reason to skip due diligence. Ask directly whether the septic system has a recent inspection report and pumping record. If your loan is FHA, VA, or USDA, confirm with your lender early exactly what they'll require, because that requirement now determines your timeline more than the county does.

Questions Black Forest sellers keep asking

Does this change apply to well permits too? No. The May 27 vote was specific to the septic side of the Transfer of Title process. Well permitting and testing remain governed separately by the Colorado Division of Water Resources, and nothing about that framework moved.

If my buyer is paying cash, does any of this matter? It matters more, not less. Without a lender in the picture requiring an inspection and without the county requiring one either, a cash sale can now close with zero third-party verification of the septic system unless the contract specifically calls for one. That's worth writing into the offer.

What if I'm comparing a Black Forest listing to something in Teller County? Know that the two counties are now running opposite processes. A property near Woodland Park in Teller County will go through a new mandatory inspection that didn't exist before this year, while a Black Forest property in El Paso County will not, unless the parties negotiate one in.

Do I still need to keep up with regular pumping if there's no mandate anymore? Yes. Regular pumping every three to five years protects the system regardless of what paperwork the county requires at sale time, and a documented maintenance history is still the strongest thing you can hand a buyer's agent.

If you're weighing a sale in Black Forest, or trying to figure out what a well-and-septic property is really worth once you factor in what the market expects on inspections and disclosure, Sheena Crompton can walk through the specifics with you. Get Your Instant Home Valuation and start the conversation with someone who tracks these changes as they happen, not after the fact.