Selling a house was already demoralizing. Strangers traipse through on short notice, poking their noses in the closets and peering in the attic. And you have to tell them about any shortcomings, such as lead-based paint or a leaky roof.

Now, property owners in DeKalb County will have to find a delicate way to break this news to potential buyers: We've got old toilets.

Beginning in June, it will become a crime to flush an original toilet in an older house that has just been sold. Well, it will actually be impossible because the county won't hook up water service unless buyers submit proof that they've got new "low-flow" toilets.

The "inefficient plumbing fixtures replacement plan" approved by DeKalb County commissioners and signed by Chief Executive Officer Vernon Jones last week will affect the sale of all homes built before 1993. Beginning in January, it will apply to the sale of all buildings of that vintage, with exceptions for economic hardship and properties transferred within the family.

"This is good legislation for conservation," Jones said.

The policy will force new owners of property to spend hundreds of dollars replacing older water-wasting toilets, faucets and other fixtures.

They can blame the drought.

The mandate, along with a voluntary toilet rebate program for homeowners approved in January, is aimed at the gradual elimination of older water guzzlers. They can flush two to five times more water than the 1.6 gallons that is standard on newer units.

As many as 165,000 homes were built in DeKalb before 1993, about the time low-flow toilets became mandatory in new construction. DeKalb officials calculate that if all of those houses and all the similarly old apartments and offices, stores and restaurants and other buildings were to sell this year, and if all the buyers did what they were supposed to, it would save 6 million gallons of water a day — enough for 60,000 people.

That won't happen, of course, not this year. Real estate agents contend it would take decades for all the old properties in DeKalb to change hands. They opposed the legislation, saying they were less concerned about the effect on their business than the hardship on buyers and sellers.

Jones introduced both the mandatory measure and the rebate proposal in November. The commission quickly approved the rebate, which pays $50 to $100 per toilet for up to three toilets per home, but repeatedly deferred the mandatory program after the real estate industry complained.

The original version forced sellers to install new toilets, but Commissioner Connie Stokes, a real estate agent, said desperate sellers would be the least able to afford it.

After months of wrangling, an exemption was included for real estate advertised for foreclosure, and also for replacements that would cost $1,000 or more because of architectural or historic restrictions and technical considerations. And the onus was shifted to the buyer.

In the end, Stokes voted for it. Only Commissioner Burrell Ellis voted no, though Elaine Boyer, who missed the vote, said she would have voted "against the toilet police."

Repeat violators are subject to fines of up to $500, and even jail.

Environmentalists praised the measure.

"This is really a pretty big deal," said Sally Bethea, executive director of the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper. She said metro Atlanta will face increasing pressure to conserve water as the population grows.

Barbara Campbell, president of the DeKalb Association of Realtors, wondered how the county would enforce its mandate on sellers to disclose their old toilets. Selling a house is hard enough, especially in this economy, she said. "When you're selling your home, I don't think you're going to be announcing that."