Can I have an outhouse or a composting toilet on my BC property?
Usually: an outhouse needs no septic filing but must stay 30 m from a well and cause no health hazard; a composting toilet is filed like a septic system, and greywater still needs one.
Opens the report at this answer. A PID always finds the lot; an address needs an exact match.
What the answer means
BC's septic rules treat an outhouse and a composting toilet differently. An outhouse (a privy) is left out of the septic regulation, so nobody files it, but it must not foul a well or water. A composting toilet counts as a septic system: an authorized person plans it and files it with the health authority. Either way the water from the sinks, shower and laundry still needs somewhere lawful to go.
- An outhouse isn't a septic system
- The Sewerage System Regulation defines a sewerage system as one that treats domestic sewage and has a discharge area, and says it doesn't include a holding tank or a privy (s. 1). So an outhouse isn't planned or filed by an authorized person the way a septic field is.
- But it must not cause a health hazard
- Every owner must see that domestic sewage from a building, human excreta included, goes to a public sewer, a holding tank or a sewerage system kept to the regulation, and causes no health hazard (ss. 1, 3). A house with plumbing can't send its toilet to an outhouse instead (our reading). A health officer can act under the Public Health Act on an outhouse that fouls water or ground.
- The well
- A well must sit at least 30 m from any probable source of contamination and 6 m from a house (Health Hazards Regulation s. 8); an outhouse pit is one such source (our reading). The health authority may also ask for distance from a lake, stream or the sea: ask before you dig.
- A composting toilet is filed
- The Ministry of Health's Manual of Composting Toilet and Greywater Practice (2016) makes a composting toilet, with its collection and processor, part of a sewerage system: an authorized person (a registered onsite wastewater practitioner or a professional) plans it and files it with the regional health authority, writes its maintenance plan, and files the final papers, as for a septic system.
- What comes out of it
- The finished material can be taken away to an approved facility, buried on the lot (filed, like any discharge to the ground) or spread on the surface without causing pollution, under the Environmental Management Act. Stored in the open, the manual keeps it 15 m from fresh or sea water, 30 m from a drinking-water source or well and 15 m from the lot line.
- The building permit
- The building code expects a house with piped water to have a toilet, sink, lavatory and bath or shower draining to a sewer or septic system. A composting toilet in place of a flush toilet is an alternative solution the local building official has to accept, and the manual tells the authorized person to get that approval where the permit needs it. Where there is no building inspection, the health authority's filing still applies.
- The sinks, shower and laundry
- A composting toilet takes only the toilet's waste. The greywater still needs a septic system, a holding tank or a greywater system planned and filed by an authorized person; poured on the ground it's still domestic sewage (s. 1, our reading). Reusing greywater inside the house falls under other rules.
- What it means for a buyer
- A cabin with only an outhouse and no running water can be lawful; one with plumbing and no filed system is a question for the seller and the health authority. Ask what is on file, and ask a practitioner what this lot would need for a septic field or a filed composting toilet before you count on either.
Our summary of the Sewerage System Regulation (B.C. Reg. 326/2004, ss. 1, 3, 3.1) and the Health Hazards Regulation (B.C. Reg. 216/2011, s. 8) on BC Laws, and the Ministry of Health's Manual of Composting Toilet and Greywater Practice (Version 1, July 2016), read 2026-10-21. The manual quotes the building code of its day. A council or regional district can add its own rules, and each health authority applies these its own way.
Sources, read 2026-10-21 and summarised in our words unless marked otherwise: Sewerage System Regulation, B.C. Reg. 326/2004; Health Hazards Regulation, B.C. Reg. 216/2011; Manual of Composting Toilet and Greywater Practice, BC Ministry of Health (2016); Onsite sewage guidelines and resources, Province of BC (read 2026-10-21); Health authority contacts, Province of BC (read 2026-10-21).
Before you buy: who to ask
- The seller or their agent
- Where does the toilet's waste go, and where do the sinks, shower and laundry drain? Is anything filed with the health authority, and how far is the outhouse or toilet from the well?
- The regional health authority
- What is on file for this property, and what do you expect of an outhouse or a composting toilet here?
- A registered onsite wastewater practitioner
- Would a composting toilet with a greywater system work on this lot, or does it need a septic field, and what would each take?
Look up the lot above: its report screens the room for a septic field against the wells, water and lot line, and lists the recorded wells nearby.
See also room for a septic field, a septic inspection, living off the grid, rainwater, a new well and building permits.
Buying rural land? Before you buy rural land in BC: the nine questions that decide an offer, on one printable page.