Section 17-1513. Remedy for purchaser of one parcel of unapproved realty subdivision

1. The  owner  of  a  parcel  of  land  acquired  as  one  parcel  for
  residential  purposes  may  apply  to  the  department  or  local health
  department having jurisdiction for a certificate  approving  the  sewage
  facilities   for   said  parcel  as  adequate  and  satisfactory.    The
  application shall include the description of the parcel as specified  in
  the instrument, by which owner acquired title.
    2.  The  proper  department shall entertain said application and issue
  said certificate providing  the  sewage  facilities  will  not,  in  the
  opinion  of  such  department,  result in the contravention of standards
  adopted for and assigned  to  the  receiving  waters  pursuant  to  this
  chapter,  or  be  injurious to public health for the public enjoyment of
  said waters, the propagation and protection of fish and wild life or the
  industrial development of the state or result in the exposure of  sewage
  on  the  ground  surface  or  impair the quality of the ground water for
  drinking purposes or otherwise create a nuisance, or menace or potential
  menace to health.
    3. The certificate approving the sewage  facilities  for  said  parcel
  shall contain the name of the owner-applicant and the description of the
  property  set  forth  in  the  application.  The  owner shall append the
  certificate of approval to a verified petition directed  to  the  county
  clerk  of  the  county wherein the property is located, praying that the
  petition and certificate of approval annexed  be  recorded  and  indexed
  against the owner-petitioner.
    4.   The  county  clerk  upon  receiving  the  petition  with  annexed
  certificate of approval, and upon tender of the lawful  recording  fees,
  shall   record  the  same  in  his  office  and  index  it  against  the
  owner-petitioner. The recording of the petition with annexed certificate
  of approval shall be deemed compliance with  section  17-1505,  for  the
  parcel described.
    5.  a. This section shall apply only to a single residential lot which
  was acquired without having  complied  with  the  provisions  of  former
  section 89 of the Public Health Law or section 17-1505 of this title but
  was:
    1.  acquired  by  the owner-applicant prior to January first, nineteen
  hundred seventy-one; or
    2.  acquired  by  the  owner-applicant  through  devise  or  intestate
  succession; or
    3.  not  at the time of acquisition of title by the owner-applicant, a
  part of a subdivision, as such term is defined  in  section  17-1501  of
  this title.
    b.  In  addition, this section shall apply to a single residential lot
  which the appropriate department deems proper for  approval  because  of
  hardship  or other special circumstances established to its satisfaction
  by the owner-applicant.