New Hampshire’s installer permit has two doors in it, and both open only for the owner of a
domicile. The prohibition is RSA 485-A:36, I(a). The second paragraph of the same section then
excuses, at II(a), “Any person who desires to install a replacement waste disposal system or to
repair a waste disposal system for their own domicile”, provided they comply with the
department’s rules for such systems. At II(b) it opens the same door for a new system on
property the person is developing to be their own domicile — and closes most of it again with
conditions: “The property owner or a permitted septic system installer perform all work to
construct the waste disposal system”, a permitted designer or permitted installer certifies the
finished system against the approved design, and the owner swears by affidavit that the
property will be their domicile for at least 2 years. This is a homeowner exemption, not a
handyman exemption. Neither limb lets an unpermitted person install for somebody else, and a
septic contractor working on a customer’s system is never the person either one describes.
For everyone outside those two limbs the permit is a condition of the work. RSA 485-A:36, I(a)
reads: “No individual shall engage in the business of installing subsurface sewage or waste
disposal systems under this subdivision without first obtaining an installer’s permit from the
department.” The permit is examined, because the department “shall require an oral or written
examination or both” before an individual qualifies. RSA 485-A:35, I(a) requires that “All
applications, plans, and specifications submitted in accordance with this chapter for
subsurface sewage or waste disposal systems shall be prepared and signed by the individual who
is directly responsible for them and who has a permit issued by the department to perform the
work.” Both permits are the
state’s: the Department of Environmental Services issues, renews, suspends and revokes them,
and no town appears anywhere in either section. The local officials New Hampshire does credential are
inspectors and enforcement officers under RSA 485-A:34, III and RSA 485-A:42, III — they
receive duties and issue no credential to a contractor, so a permit is not obtained at town
hall. Both permits sit on an
individual rather than a company, and Env-Wq 1004.10 makes each permitted installer
“responsible for all construction or other installation activities performed under their
permit number.” Working on a suspended or voided permit is its own prohibition under RSA
485-A:36, I(e), and violations route to RSA 485-A:43, which reaches a misdemeanor for a
natural person and a felony for any other person.
The design permit does not make its holder an engineer, and a design does not always need
one. Env-Wq 1003.02(d) provides that “an ISDS shall be designed by a permitted designer
who is also a civil or sanitary professional engineer (P.E.) licensed in the state of New
Hampshire if the ISDS is” one of five enumerated cases, the first being a single structure whose
system will have a design flow greater than 5,000 GPD. Env-Wq 1003.02(f) then lets a permitted
designer who is not a P.E. draw those plans, which “shall only be submitted to the department
after being reviewed and approved by a P.E. who is also a permitted designer.”
Pumping runs on a separate permit from the same department. Env-Wq 1603.03 bars transporting
septage on public roads without “First obtaining a septage hauler permit from the department”,
and the permit does not stand alone: Env-Wq 1603.03(b) also requires “At least one valid written
agreement with a permitted disposal facility, land application site, or a septage holding tank
permit”, or a contract with another hauler who holds one. The permit is issued to the operator
for the tanks named in the application, each inspected by the department within the previous
2 years; a copy rides in the vehicle, a department plate is mounted on the rear of the
transporting unit, and the hauler’s name, principal place of business and telephone number go
on both sides in permanent lettering. Portable toilet and marine sanitation device waste are
carried on the same permit under Env-Wq 1607.01. The disposal outlet itself is a municipal
question — RSA 485-A:5-b, I obliges each municipality to provide or assure access to an
approved septage facility for its residents — but that duty binds the town, not the hauler, and
the civil penalty for a septage rule violation sits at RSA 485-A:22, not at the installer
section’s RSA 485-A:43.
Evaluating an existing system is a third credential from a different body. RSA 310-A:209, I
provides that “no person shall practice as a septic system evaluator or conduct septic system
evaluations in this state without a septic system evaluator’s license issued by the board
under this subdivision”. The Board of Septic System Evaluators writes the standards of practice,
sets eligibility around a board-approved course and a board-adopted examination, and issues the
license; its paperwork is administered through the state’s professional licensure office. The
board itself is built from this trade — RSA 310-A:206, I seats a permitted designer, a permitted
installer, a permitted septage hauler, a public member and an employee of the environmental
department. Practicing without the license is a class B misdemeanor for a first offense and a
class A misdemeanor after that under RSA 310-A:219, I, and evaluating on an expired or revoked
license is its own offense under RSA 310-A:213. Two exemptions sit at RSA 310-A:221: a
government employee inspecting within official duties, and a septic system designer holding a
current permit. The second runs one way only — a permitted designer may evaluate without the
license, but an evaluator license does not let its holder design.
RSA 485-A:39, I makes the evaluation compulsory at one point: “Prior to the transfer of any
developed waterfront property using a septic system, where any portion of the septic system is
within 250 feet of the reference line as defined in RSA 483-B:4, XVII”. It is the buyer who
must, at the buyer’s expense, engage a licensed evaluator. For an older or unapproved system RSA
485-A:39, II adds a second professional — “the buyer shall also hire a New Hampshire permitted
septic system designer to determine the elevation of the bottom of the effluent disposal area
relative to the elevation of the seasonal high water table”. The findings do not prohibit the sale but
must be disclosed to the buyer, the evaluator carries a notification duty when the system
shows signs of failure, and RSA 485-A:39, V(c) can compel replacement within 180 days of the
transfer. Whether a given property is inside the trigger is a measurement on that property, not
a fact about any town or lake.
None of these credentials carries an insurance or bond condition that the record found. The
question was checked separately, and no statewide trade-blind contractor registration reaches a
New Hampshire septic installer, so none brings such a condition with it. The denominator is
stated rather than implied: the table of contents of RSA Title XXX, Occupations and Professions,
carries no chapter title naming a contractor, builder, construction, excavation or septic
credential, and the two plumbing chapters it names are repealed in their entirety. That is a
statement about chapter titles. It does not prove that no licensing regime anywhere reaches a
septic contractor in some other capacity, and it would reopen if a state registration
conditioned on proof of liability insurance or a surety bond were found.
The coverage conversation that does have a statute behind it is workers compensation. Beyond
the first-employee duty summarized below, RSA 281-A:18 provides that “A contractor who
subcontracts all or any part of a contract shall bear the liability of the subcontractor” for
compensation to the subcontractor’s employees unless the subcontractor has secured it — which
is why a certificate of insurance is asked for before a septic sub starts. The commissioner may
demand a compliance statement from contractors, subcontractors and independent contractors in
the nonresidential building or construction industry under RSA 281-A:4-a, I, and an agency or
political subdivision awarding a contract involving labor must require satisfactory proof of
coverage under RSA 281-A:7, V. Owners are handled differently from crew: sole proprietors and
partners are outside the chapter unless they elect to be personally covered, and up to 3
executive officers or members of a corporation or limited liability company may be excluded
only by an election properly filed with the commissioner. Crossing the state line changes
nothing: RSA 281-A:5-f provides that “the provisions of this chapter shall apply to nonresident
employees and employers doing business in New Hampshire”, so a crew based next door is inside
the same duty. The consequences of getting it wrong
are personal — a person controlling the payroll who knowingly failed to secure payment is
personally liable for the civil penalties, the superior court can be asked to restrain the
employer from doing business, and purposely failing to secure payment is a class B felony under
RSA 281-A:7, VI. New Hampshire operates no state workers compensation fund. RSA 281-A:5 leaves a private
employer two routes and no third: a licensed insurer, or satisfactory proof to the commissioner
of financial ability to pay directly.
