[cmccuist]

My wife and I bought our dream home here in south Texas about two years ago and now the county told us we have ten days to vacate the premises. The septic system failed and they told us we needed to upgrade to the latest state regulations.

I told them no problem. So I got a sanitation engineer out here to look at my land. Due to my location on the San Bernard River, the position of my well and the small size of my lot, he told me that even with every variance he could think of, I still don't have enough land to install a system.

Now, the place is unlivable, and if I just give it back to the lender, he wont be able to sell it and I'll still be on the hook for the loan amount.

I've talked with an attorney about going after the realtor. He says I have a good case, but it will cost 10-15K and take a year or two to settle. I talked with a bankruptcy attorney. He said I make too much for a chapter 7. He says maybe a chapter 13 would help some.

My only other options are to do what's known as "pump and haul" which means put in a big tank and cart off the sewage ($150/500 gal). Or the other option is to buy some land from my neighbor and put a system there. But he tried to sell me some land and ran into more laws and regulations about sub-dividing acreage and got frustrated and quit trying.

I'm pretty much screwed right about now. I can't live in my home and can't afford to keep dumping $2000/mo into a rat hole.

Any suggestions out there?