Septic Tank Diagnostic

Just had a letter from SAT (Syndicat Armagnac Tenareze).They want to come and asses our septic tank and charge us €120 for doing it.

This seems a bit random, we've owned the place for 9 years and haven't had any problems, its a holiday home at the moment.

Has anybody had anything similar of late or otherwise?

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Permalink Reply by Jayne Warner on March 17, 2013 at 14:48

We had ours done last October. They sent a report which he said would take about 6 weeks and it did. Needless to say it did not conform; mostly because I wasn't sure whereabouts in the field it was placed, but as it is only advisory, it does not need to be done. Apparently there is no law to enforce it and with the cost of replacing one being so much money most of the old and poorer people would not be able to have it done anyway.

They sent us a Facture for €90. I seem to have heard somewhere that this would be an annual charge or fine type thing, but can't remember where I read or heard it, so it could well be wrong.

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Permalink Reply by Heather Jeffery on March 17, 2013 at 15:19

It is national - we have just had our new system passed here in Brittany and it cost 35 euros. Let's face it we all want safe water supplies and this is part of their job to maintain standards and make sure foul water is not entering the chain

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Permalink Reply by Vin Collins on March 17, 2013 at 16:09

here in the Lot we had our 1st round of visits 4 yrs ago for which we paid 15euros per yr we have just had our 2nd visit but the charge has risen slightly to 70euros but will still cover four years.....had a full report after inspection only recommendation is to have our bac a grasse cleaned out. Now have a record car to record all waste removed and if we sell the house all reports and the record card will have to be produced for the notaire !!

more french red tape !!

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Permalink Reply by Keith Lacey on March 17, 2013 at 16:21

Existing and new installations, including fosse septiques, will all have 4 yearly inspections.

This is not only to drum up work for the french as usual but also to ensure that any previously conforming systems are

now not polluting.

All micro stations, as part of the CERIB/CSTB simple evaluation of the EN paperwork (costs the manufacturers 19000 euro per model of system just to have NF put in front of the EN) have to included record sheets within the system manual. These have to be completed on any service visit by the servicing company/artisan. This includes emptying or de-sludging.

keith

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Permalink Reply by Gordon Barnes on March 17, 2013 at 18:17

Compulsory periodic inspections began in 2005 but of course it has taken years to get around all properties.

The size of the tank is based on the number of bedrooms with the latest norms being a minimum tank of 3000 litres and an additional 1000 litres for every bedroom above 3 - even if you are just a couple living there.

There is obviously a lot of inconsistency regarding the cost of the inspection and the frequency - the normal gap between inspections should be 4 years. If found to be unacceptable existing owners have 4 years to put it right unless causing environmental nuisance etc.

SPANC are the overall inspection body but they authorise other qualified companies to act on their behalf in different areas.

When you sell your property you have to provide a report done in the last 3 years. If the new owner takes on your non compliant system they have to put things right in the first year of ownership.

If in doubt check with the Mairie.

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Permalink Reply by Glen Allsopp on March 17, 2013 at 18:41

This isn't a scam! Over the pasty several years the French government has undertaken to inspect all assainisment individuel, at first the fee was €52, obviously gone up now. This fee will be billed to you, you do not pay the inspector on the day of inspection.

Do yourself a big favour though, find the lid of the tank and expose it, then get it pumped out as soon as you can and keep the receipt to show the inspector. This will earn you big 'Brownie' points as the inspector will see that you're managing your system.

Holiday homes are targeted as being most likely to need updating as they realise that most holiday home owners haven't a clue about fosses. GET IT PUMPED OUT, NOW!

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Permalink Reply by Keith Lacey on March 17, 2013 at 19:15

fosse septiqes are calculated by 1000 ltrs per bedroom.

BUT micro stations are calculated by EH. Equivelent habitation.

That is based on 1 EH per principal room only. For the Grenelle law, diagnostic inspections started in 2010.

The Arette of 2009/2012 covers the obligatory inspections by water authorities not 2005.

When the obligatory inspection of waste water non collective system takes place, you can pump out as much as you like.

They will still want to see documentation or visibly be able to check what system is at the prop

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Permalink Reply by Keith Lacey on March 17, 2013 at 19:28

Final bit Tony.

They will also check your ventilation on the existing system.

it must confrm to XP DTU 64.1 of march 2007.

If you need a copy of the drawing, email me and i will send you one

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Permalink Reply by neil whitehead on March 17, 2013 at 20:11

We had all this nearly ten years ago when we told that the commune either had to get it's resident's to install conforming tanks or provide a system for the commune. There are only 42 people in our commune so highly unlikely that a system will be installed. We have two septique tanks, one behind the house and the other, behind the barn, which we have not found. They were "inspected" by a teenager who just looked about, declared that the system was non conforming and went away. We were told that there would be a meeting in the mairie within 3 months to discuss the situation-no meeting ever took place. We were also told that various grants would be available and in some cases all the work would be carried out for free. No inspection fee was charged and the whole matter faded away!

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Permalink Reply by John Scully on March 18, 2013 at 22:52

We are waiting to be SPAINCed but no sign of them yet. Our Fosse probably wouldn't make the grade but the local consensus is that if it's working OK day to day then there's no real problem until if and when we sell. One of the issues seems to be that while there are EU standards the French standards haven't been ratified yet so installing a new treatment system now is bit risky for future compliance tests. We've had a few quotes but fosse sales people all seem to be hustlers. We'll move on this slowly.

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Permalink Reply by Keith Lacey on March 18, 2013 at 23:13

Not quite sure i like being called a hustler and i suggest you read the 2 arretes issued in 2009 and 2012 john.Anyone that knows me will tell you that is not the case. I fought long and hard aginst the french bureacrats over all this. So much so they threatened to cut our water off. Hence us and the EU.

I would be really interested in what the diagnostic throws up. if you conform and are not polluting they will pass it.

If not, they will either order immediate repair or give you normally 4 yrs to fix.

The french NF EN has been accepted by the commission.

How do I know?

Because it was myself and my wife that took France to the commission in 2007/8

We won the case forcing france to accept micro stations but then the commission allowed the simplified evaluation by either cerib or cstb to let france put NF in front ofthe EN 12566.