Last updated 15 October 2026
£22 buys a septic tank lead. There's no row for the install.
Leads Do Work is the only UK seller that prints a price for septic work: £22 plus VAT for a "Septic Tank Inspection / Clearance" lead. Its list has no line for a new tank, a treatment plant or a drainage field. PromoSEO sells septic maintenance inside its drainage leads, from £500 a month or around 30% of each job. Bark, MyJobQuote, Checkatrade and TrustATrader take septic customers but publish no septic lead price. A click on your own septic ad costs £6.33 to £16.83.
So the lead you can buy at a published price is the inspection or the £150 to £200 empty. The £6,000 to £12,000 treatment plant is the job you have to go and find.
What this guide covers
The tank, the treatment plant and the drainage field: installs, replacements, emptying rounds and servicing. Blocked drains, CCTV surveys, relining and who owns the pipe are in our drainage leads guide, along with the waste carrier fee and the Building Regulations distances for a new tank.
Where we stand
We don't sell septic tank leads. We help you get your own.
This guide is the honest version of what buying septic tank leads costs, and who else gets them. What we do instead is build septic tank firms a website that turns visits into calls, and run Google Ads in an account in your own name, so every lead that comes in is a customer who found you, and nobody else was sold it.
What you are buying
The same £22 is 38% of an empty and 0.7% of a treatment plant.
Off-mains work runs from a tanker visit to an install that MyJobQuote says takes 2 to 7 days, and the lead price doesn't move with it. Here is Leads Do Work's £22 against each job if you win one quote in 3, next to what PromoSEO's pay-per-conversion model would take.
| Job | Typical UK price | Leads Do Work, £22 a lead | PromoSEO, 30% of the job |
|---|---|---|---|
| Empty an 8,500 litre septic tank | £150 to £200 | £66 a win, 38% of the job | £53 per job won |
| Empty a cesspit, per visit | £175 to £300 | £66 a win, 28% of the job | £71 per job won |
| Install a new drainage field | £1,500 to £4,000 | £66 a win, 2% of the job | £825 per job won |
| Simple septic tank replacement | £4,000 to £6,000 | £66 a win, 1% of the job | £1,500 per job won |
| Sewage treatment plant, installed | £6,000 to £12,000 | £66 a win, 0.7% of the job | £2,700 per job won |
Job prices from MyJobQuote's emptying and installation guides, both updated September 2026, worked at the middle of each range. Leads Do Work's row is for inspection and clearance, so its column on the bigger jobs shows what the price would do if one of those leads turned into an install. One win in 3 is MyJobQuote's figure for its trades; nobody publishes an independent UK figure. Lead prices are before VAT.
A won customer should cost about 10 to 15 percent of the job. Every install clears that easily, at 2% of a drainage field and 1% of a replacement tank. The single empty doesn't, at 38%, and neither does the cesspit visit at 28%. PromoSEO's share goes the other way: modest on an empty, £2,700 on a treatment plant.
If you run a tanker
An empty is a round, not a one-off. Every tank has to be desludged at least once a year or as its maker says, and MyJobQuote puts a household's emptying and routine upkeep at about £200 a year. Keep a customer 5 years and that's around £1,000 by our sum. A bought lead only pays if the customer is still yours next year.
If you dig and install
The money is in the replacement, the drainage field and the treatment plant, and none of those has a per-lead price anywhere. You either hope an inspection lead grows into one, pay PromoSEO a share of it, or advertise for the install yourself.
Check any price guide before you quote off it. MyJobQuote's own septic category page says installs "average around £1,300", while its cost guide on the same site puts the average at around £5,500. Checkatrade's installation guide says a replacement "usually costs around £4,000". A customer who read the first figure will think your quote is four times too high.
Your numbers
How much can a septic tank lead cost before the job stops paying you?
A simple tank replacement is loaded first, where Leads Do Work's £22 barely registers. Switch to the single empty to see why tanker firms live on repeat customers.
WHAT CAN YOU PAY FOR A SEPTIC TANK LEAD?
Pick a job, or type in what yours are worth
Starts on one in three, the figure MyJobQuote tells its own trades to expect. Put in yours.
You can pay up to about
£250
a lead, winning one in 3
- Healthy range, per won job
- £500 to £750
- Which per lead is
- £167 to £250
Put a seller's price in the last box and this will tell you what each won job would cost you.
That 10 to 15 percent band is a rule of thumb we use across every trade. Nobody has measured it.
Who sells them
Two sellers put a price on septic work. Neither has a line for a new tank.
We checked the lead sellers and directories that cover drainage and off-mains work. Seller pages and prices are quoted from each firm's own website, and "Not stated" means the firm doesn't say. Zapo and Leads Everyday, which both sell drainage leads, have no septic tank page at all.
| Seller | Price | Who else gets the lead | In their words |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leads Do Work | £22 a lead + VAT, £11 a week | 1 to 3 others, 5 at most | "Septic Tank Inspection / Clearance" |
| PromoSEO | From £500 a month, or 30% of the job | Nobody in your area | "one company per area" |
| MyJobQuote | Credits, shown after sign-up | Up to 3 trades | "Up to 3 local trades will then be in touch" |
| Bark | Credits at £1.80 + VAT | Up to 5 professionals | "Septic Tanks & Soakaway Installers" |
| Checkatrade (with Rated People) | Membership from £30 a month | Not stated | "Septic Tanks - Installation / Emptying / Cleaning" |
| TrustATrader | Not published, paid yearly | Not stated | "Memberships are limited per area" |
Leads Do Work sells the inspection and the empty, not the dig
Its Connect price list files septic work under "Drains & Sewers / Heating" as one row, "Septic Tank Inspection / Clearance", at £22 from a homeowner and £32 from a business, plus VAT and an £11 weekly fee. There is no row for installing a tank, a treatment plant or a drainage field. Its terms put 1 to 3 other firms on a job as well as you, never more than 5, and say "The number of leads is not guaranteed".
Unlike its drainage and garage door categories, there's no septic page and no public feed of recent septic leads to judge them by. Returns are "manually reviewed", and contracts "can be canceled anytime".
PromoSEO takes a share, and the share grows with the job
Its drainage page lists "Septic tank and interceptor maintenance" among the work it finds, with "Monthly lead packages" from £500 and a pay-per-conversion model that "typically costs around 30 percent of the confirmed job value once payment is received". It sells to "one company per area" and names SEO, Google Ads and Local Services Ads as where the leads come from. On a £9,000 treatment plant, 30% is £2,700. There's no septic-only page, so ask whether an install lead is priced the same way as an empty.
The directories take septic customers and share them out
MyJobQuote's "Septic Tanks & Soakaway" category sends each job to up to 3 trades. Bark has a "Septic Tanks & Soakaway Installation" category, sells credits at £1.80 plus VAT that last 3 months, and lets up to 5 professionals respond. Rated People, now part of Checkatrade Group, lists septic tank installation, emptying and cleaning, and its leads now come only with a Checkatrade membership from £30 a month or a 12-month fixed plan. TrustATrader has a "Septic Tank Services" category, charges a year in advance and limits members per area. More on how those credits behave in is Bark worth it, and on sharing one customer between several firms in the shared-lead trap.
Everything here about Leads Do Work's contract comes from its own published terms and conditions, last read on 1 October 2026. Terms get revised, so check yours against the current version before you act on anything.
Rather have septic tank leads that are yours alone?
That's what we do. We don't sell leads. We build the website and run the Google Ads that bring customers straight to you, in an ad account in your name that stays yours if you ever leave.
See pricingWant to know how many people near you search Google for what you do each month? Message us your town and we'll send you the real numbers.
Check my areaBuying the click yourself
Nobody searches for septic tank leads. Plenty search for the work.
"septic tank leads" returns no search volume at all, and "septic tank enquiries" gets about 20 a month with nobody bidding. The owner's side is busy: "septic tank emptying" gets 4,400 searches a month at £10.47 a click, and "sewage treatment plant service" costs £15.26. The per-lead column divides each click by 7.33%, WordStream's conversion rate for home improvement search ads, which is US data, so treat it as a rough guide.
| Search | Searches a month | Per click | Per lead |
|---|---|---|---|
| septic tank companies near me | 40 | £16.83 | £230 |
| sewage treatment plant service | 110 | £15.26 | £208 |
| septic tank installers near me | 390 | £13.78 | £188 |
| cesspit emptying | 720 | £12.49 | £170 |
| septic tank survey | 320 | £12.13 | £165 |
| septic tank repair | 210 | £11.55 | £158 |
| septic tank installation | 1,000 | £11.48 | £157 |
| septic tank emptying | 4,400 | £10.47 | £143 |
| septic tank replacement | 320 | £9.67 | £132 |
| sewage treatment plant installation | 260 | £9.14 | £125 |
| septic tank services | 720 | £8.51 | £116 |
| septic tank emptying near me | 2,900 | £8.06 | £110 |
| septic tank inspection | 480 | £7.45 | £102 |
| septic tank desludging | 170 | £6.33 | £86 |
Google Ads data for the UK, pulled 1 October 2026. Click prices are bid-based estimates, so what you actually pay will land near them rather than on them.
Every row works out dearer per lead than Leads Do Work's £22, at £86 to £230. On a single empty that's a loss: a lead off "septic tank emptying" costs about £143, so £429 for every £175 job won. On an install it isn't. A lead off "sewage treatment plant installation" costs about £125, which is £374 per won plant, about 4% of a £9,000 job. "septic tank survey" at £12.13 and "septic tank companies near me" at £16.83 are the dearest clicks in the set, and the survey is often where a replacement starts.
- Bid on installs, replacements and surveys, not single empties
- Win the emptying customer once, then keep them yourself
- A separate campaign for treatment plant servicing
- Your waste carrier number and accreditations on the ad
- Clicks paid to Google, with nothing added
- An ad account that leaves with you
How a search campaign is put together, and what a trade is signing up to, is in the Google Ads guide for tradesmen.
Google Local Services Ads
Google's UK category list for Local Services Ads has no septic, drainage, drain or sewer category, so that route is shut to you. PromoSEO names Local Services Ads as one of its channels, which is worth asking about: under which category, and whose business did the customer see? Drainage firms that also clear pipes may fit elsewhere on the list, which our Local Services Ads guide walks through.
Quoting a new install
Since October 2023, the neighbour's tank can decide whether your install needs a permit.
In England a septic tank or small sewage treatment plant runs without a permit only if it meets every general binding rule that applies to it. Which rules apply depends on when the discharge started. gov.uk counts a discharge as new if it started or "changed significantly since 2 October 2023", including one moved more than 10 metres. A replacement in the same spot can stay an existing discharge. A system for a house that is still being planned or built can't.
A new discharge must connect to a public foul sewer if the Environment Agency decides it is "reasonable", weighing distance, "the cost of connecting ... compared with the cost of installing a sewage treatment system" and obstacles such as "a large road". You can't meet the rules with a public foul sewer within 30 metres of a single property's boundary, and for a development gov.uk says to "Multiply the number of houses by 30 metres". Then come the two rules added in 2023:
50 metres from the next one
"You must have a permit for the new discharge if it's within 50 metres of any other system that discharges under the general binding rules." gov.uk's advice to the owner is to ask the neighbours.
No sharing an outlet
A new discharge can't use another's outlet if the combined volume is over 2 cubic metres a day to ground or 5 to surface water. Over that, it needs a permit.
Sized to Flows and Loads
Anything installed after 1 February 2006 must meet British Water's Flows and Loads sizing, and the owner is told to "check with the installer". A retrofit unit inside an old septic tank needs a permit unless it went in before 2007.
On ground discharges, a drainage field can't sit in a groundwater source protection zone 1, which gov.uk says "can also be any area within 50 metres of a private water supply for human consumption". Every new system needs building regulations approval, and may need planning permission. A lead asking for a new treatment plant says nothing about the neighbour's outfall, their spring or the sewer up the lane. Ask before you price it, because a permit adds time and the customer will want to know who applies.
Replacement work
The 2020 deadline went. The house sale took its place.
The old guidance told owners of septic tanks draining straight into a stream to act by 1 January 2020. The current rule has no date. The owner must fix it "as soon as possible", by connecting to a public foul sewer, replacing the tank with a small sewage treatment plant or putting in a drainage field, with "plans in place to do this work within a reasonable timescale, usually 12 months".
What sets the clock now is a sale. Buyer and seller "should agree this as a condition of sale", and a seller must tell the new owner in writing that a sewage discharge is in place, with its location, any changes and the maintenance records. That is where the survey searches come from: "septic tank survey" costs £12.13 a click, and "septic tank inspection" jumped to 1,600 searches in September and October 2025, against 140 to 320 in other months.
Price the survey to win the job
Leads Do Work's only septic row is inspection. A survey before a sale can find a tank that drains to a ditch, and the fix is a £4,000 to £6,000 replacement or a £6,000 to £12,000 treatment plant. Leave a written report and a quote the buyer's solicitor can use.
Ask about the neighbours
gov.uk says that if more than one property needs to replace or upgrade, the sewerage company "may have a legal duty to provide a sewer", called first time sewerage. A replacement lead in a hamlet where every house has the same problem can end as a sewer connection instead.
After the install
gov.uk names one list of competent engineers. It has 18 listings.
Both sets of general binding rules say a plant must be "installed and operated in line with the manufacturer's specification" and regularly maintained to the manufacturer's instructions. A failed motor, pump or electrical supply means it must be repaired or replaced. Then: "Anyone who carries out maintenance on your system must be competent. Competent people include those on British Water's list of accredited service engineers."
We read that list on 1 October 2026. It had 18 company listings, with one to thirteen technicians each. British Water is rebuilding its Accredited Service Technician scheme with CIWEM, and says that "new AST course delivery is temporarily paused", with existing accreditations extended "until December 2026". gov.uk adds that "There may be other competent service engineers", so the list isn't the only way in. It is the one a worried owner gets pointed at.
If you're on the list
Say so on your website and in your ads, next to "sewage treatment plant service", a search that costs £15.26 a click. Few rivals can make the same claim this year.
If you're not
Show the competence you have and leave proper maintenance records after every visit. The owner has to hand those over in writing when they sell, so a tidy record is something the next owner sees too.
The tanker side has its own check. gov.uk tells owners to ask the driver "for a copy of the company's waste carrier's certificate". The fee and renewal are in our drainage guide's septic section.
Through the year
Install searches spiked one September and never came close again.
UK searches for "septic tank installation" hit 3,600 in September 2025, then never went above 1,600 again, bottoming out at 590 in December and July: about 6.1 times between top and bottom. The emptying searches behave differently, with one October spike, and are charted in the drainage guide.
UK searches for "septic tank installation", by month
September 2025 to August 2026. Google Ads keyword data, rounded bands.
The same September, related searches jumped too:
- "septic tank regulations": 2,400, against 480 to 880 in the other months
- "septic tank replacement": 1,600, against 110 to 390 in the other months
- "sewage treatment plant installation": 1,300, against 110 to 260 in the other months
We couldn't find what caused it, and one year of data can't say whether it comes back. Treat it as something that happened once, and keep the install campaign running through the flat months rather than saving the budget for a repeat that may not come.
Where the lead came from
Ask five questions before you pay for a septic tank lead.
A septic lead carries a rural address and often a landline, the kind of record that gets resold. Before you ring it, the ICO expects you to have done "proportionate checks and due diligence" of your own on where it came from. The home improvement cases it has taken are listed in our roofing leads guide.
- Which website or ad did the customer fill in?
- Does the consent name my business?
- How many other septic firms get it?
- Is it an empty, a survey or an install?
- Does the property drain to ground or a watercourse?
The last answer decides which general binding rules the job falls under, so it is worth having before you quote, whatever the seller says.
Which way to go
Buy an empty only if you'll keep the customer. Advertise for the install.
Buy per lead if
- You run a tanker round
- The customer stays on your list
- You also inspect at sale
- You reply within the hour
Think twice if
- You mostly install
- Up to 5 firms can get the call
- 30% of a plant is £2,700
- Nobody says where it came from
Run your own if
- You want plants and replacements
- You service what you fit
- You want the call to yourself
- The ad account is yours to take
Septic work pays twice: the install once, then the emptying and servicing every year after. A bought lead can start the second, at a price set by the cheapest job. The first you have to find yourself. How leads are sold in every other trade is in our guide to trade leads, and the pipe side of your business is covered in drainage leads.
Our sources
Where every septic tank figure here came from.
We build websites and run Google Ads for trades, so we have a side in this. On septic work the sums still go both ways: a bought lead wins on an install, and loses on a one-off empty.
Seller pages and terms were read on their own sites on 1 October 2026. Search volumes and click prices are Google Ads data for the UK, pulled 1 October 2026. Job prices are from MyJobQuote's emptying and installation guides, checked against Checkatrade's installation guide. The rules are the Environment Agency's general binding rules for discharges to surface water and to ground, and gov.uk's permits guidance. They apply in England; gov.uk says Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have different rules. The accredited engineers are from British Water's list, and lead consent from the ICO.
Questions septic tank firms ask
Septic tank leads, answered.
- How much do septic tank leads cost in the UK?
- Leads Do Work is the only seller that prints a per-lead price: £22 for a septic tank inspection or clearance lead from a homeowner and £32 from a business, plus VAT and an £11 weekly fee. It has no row for installations. PromoSEO lists septic tank maintenance among its drainage work, from £500 a month or around 30% of the confirmed job value. Bark, MyJobQuote, Checkatrade and TrustATrader have septic categories but publish no septic lead price. A click on your own septic ad costs £6.33 to £16.83.
- Are septic tank leads exclusive?
- Mostly not. Leads Do Work says 1 to 3 other firms usually compete for the same job, never more than 5. MyJobQuote lets up to 3 trades quote and Bark up to 5. PromoSEO is the exception: it sells drainage leads, septic maintenance included, to one company per area.
- Does a new sewage treatment plant need a permit if the neighbour has one?
- It can. Under the general binding rules for England, a discharge that started on or after 2 October 2023 needs a permit if it is within 50 metres of any other system discharging under those rules. It also can't share an outlet with another discharge if the combined volume is over 2 cubic metres a day to ground or 5 to surface water. gov.uk tells the owner to ask the neighbours.
- Is there still a 2020 deadline to replace septic tanks that drain into a stream?
- No. The old guidance gave 1 January 2020. The current rule says a septic tank discharging straight to a watercourse must be fixed "as soon as possible", by connecting to a public foul sewer, replacing it with a small sewage treatment plant or fitting a drainage field, with plans in place "usually 12 months". If the house is being sold, buyer and seller should agree who does it as a condition of sale.
- Who can service a sewage treatment plant?
- Someone competent. The general binding rules say anyone who maintains a system must be, and name British Water's list of accredited service engineers as an example. On 1 October 2026 that list had 18 company listings, and British Water had paused new Accredited Service Technician courses while it rebuilds the scheme with CIWEM, extending existing accreditations until December 2026. The plant must also be maintained in line with the manufacturer's instructions.
- Do I need a waste carrier licence to empty septic tanks?
- Yes. Whoever takes the sludge away must be a registered waste carrier, and gov.uk tells owners to ask the tanker driver for a copy of the certificate. The registration fee and renewal are covered in our drainage leads guide.
- When do people search for septic tank installation most?
- In the last 12 months, UK searches for "septic tank installation" peaked in September at 3,600 and were lowest in December and July at 590, about 6.1 times apart. No other month went above 1,600.
- Is it legal to buy septic tank leads?
- Yes, but the checking is on you. The ICO says a business buying marketing data must carry out proportionate checks and due diligence, and that it is not enough to accept a third party's assurances. Ask the seller where each lead was collected and whether the consent names your business.
Keep reading
More straight answers for trades.
Treatment plants and replacements in the diary, from owners who searched for you.
We build your website and run Google Ads from an account in your own name, aimed at the installs, replacements and servicing that pay rather than one-off empties at someone else's price. See what it costs, then tell us about your business and we'll aim the ads at the treatment plants and drainage fields on your patch.