Hi we are considering purchasing a small terrace, comprising house which has an attached garage and a further attached house, i.e house/garage/house a new fosse septique is required would we be able to have one for both houses or would 2 be required one for each property? Thank you.
Best talk with SPANC locally, they authorise what can or cannot be done. Your mairie will put you in touch with them to give a report etc. Remember if the property is a terraced property with no direct access to the land, you will end up with the emptying pipes from the tanker for the septic going through your house when it needs to be done
Also think through the long-term implications of your ownership of these properties. What if there came a time when you wanted to sell one of the properties? If you only have one fosse for the two, life would get very complicated. At the very least there would have to be a âservitudeâ for right of access and that would certainly put off some buyers.
An alternative might be a micro-station? Could it be installed on the street side of your property? Certainly thatâs what theyâve been doing in villages round here.
As @Shiba says - talk to your local SPANC and possibly the mairie as they may be aware of other local scenarios like yours.
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A good idea - but our local SPANC is most insistent that these should not be used for holiday homes - just résidences principales.
Good point! Major issues if the power goes off. @Issy is yours going to be a holiday home?
As an inhabitant of pedantâs corner I have to mention that all domestic waste water (grey & black) is now handled by a âfosse toutes eauxâ & not an old fashioned fosse septique (although even official documents often fail to make that differentiation).
Terminology mattersâŠ
Given the number of pedants in here, shouldnât that be pedantsâ corner 
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We had a joint sign-off meeting with both the MicroStation installers and manufacturer, to close the books on the installation process. I asked them (prompted by earlier questions on SF) about power cuts.
Both were adamant that being without power was no problem (the usual âpas de soucisâ) for about a month. Their explanation was that the bacteria will get along quite happily for that period ,but after a month things might not be quite so happy. I have to defer to their expertise, but their explanation did surprise me.
You are, of course, correct. My typoâŠ
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Reminds me of a cartoon I once saw. A man enters an office where there is another man seated at a table. Above him is a sign âThe Pedantic Societyâ. The man who has just entered says: âShouldnât that be the Society of Pedants?â
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MUCH prefer the old-fashioned version. This âtoutes eauxâ approach dilutes it all too much, especially if you are only a family of two and the washing machine water and the dishwasher water are going into the same container. Big mistake.
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Maybe, but they are no longer âaux normesâ.
âŠwhich is entirely their point. Diluting black waste a.s.a.p. means it is far less concentrated at itâs first meeting with natural soil.
ErrrâŠwhy?
Iâd rather things were rearranged to divert grey water to plants
Because the grey water dilutes the black, the amount of bacteria we can produce is insufficient and the fosse does not âmatureâ nicely as the old (small) one did that was only a fosse septique, all the grey water being taken away separately through a bac Ă graisse. The old one never smelt. The fosse toutes eaux has taken years to settle down.
A cheap alternative - use a compost toilet. Grey water goes through a grease trap and is percolated into the ground through underground pipes (or used on the garden). The stuff from the toilet is composted and also used on the garden. Been doing that for 15 years in the UK, and compost toilet has been approved for use in a new house Iâm building in Correze.
No fosse septique, no use of water to flush things away, no contamination of grey water with black. Of course, youâd have buckets of poop to deal with, but sawdust makes it all non-smelly.
Just a primitive but possibly useful option.
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Something else must be wrong then. Iâve not come across any problems with any properly installed fosse toutes eaux here in Normandie.
Itâs a bit late for @SuePJ but for other Fosse folkâŠ
These things should not smell⊠and if they do, please talk it through with SPANC âŠ
and your contractor (if itâs a new Fosse)âŠ
Fosses cost a lot of money and should be doing a wonderful job⊠smelling horrible has no part to play in such circumstances⊠and I certainly wouldnât wait years for it to settle down⊠grrrrr⊠Iâd be furious !!!
Ours whiffs a bit sometimes but only when it needs emptying, generally. Also, they require 2 pipes for ventilation and we only have one - itâs something we need to sort out before the next inspectionâŠ
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I once had a conversation with someone who had similar complaints about their fosse toutes eaux. It turned out that they always used biological detergent in their washing machines, were diligent users of UK bleach/disinfectant toilet cleaners and spat mouthwash down the sink morning, noon and night.
All very effective anti-bactericidal agents, as evidenced by their non-functioning fosse.
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I hadnât thought about mouthwash but we certainly donât use bleach or biological washing powder and I donât think @SuePJ does either 