Septic tank needs updating

Teresa… what “6 months access” are you talking about ?? :thinking:

I assume i will still be allowed to visit UK 6 months per year if necessary.

That’s an interesting point. I’d always presumed that as British Citizens we could go there as an when we liked and had to take care not to spend enough time outside France to risk our rights of residence here.
To answer your original residency question; If it was me I would come as soon as possible, settle in and have as much paperwork as possible in place by B day. I would definitely come before the end of the year and prepare to do a first tax return next year. The fact is however that until everything is sorted out and the dust has settled nobody knows how hard or easy it will be for Britons to move to France or even to visit their holiday homes here after Britain leaves the EU. Only time will tell but if you have made up your mind to move don’t put it off any longer than you have to.

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I oscillate between panicking slightly that I won’t be able to get to the house and rationalizing that 90 day visits for tourist purposes are unlikely to have much bureaucracy attached to them - mostly the latter.

But, as David says, one cannot really know and with May stubbornly sticking to her “It’s Chequers or no deal” line the latter is starting to look worryingly probable again.

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That’s just how I am. One day I think it’s all fine, next day I panic.
Theoretically it shouldn’t be a problem if reciprocal agreements are put in place but theoretically I never thought the establishment would have such anti EU views! And the msm are ridiculous.

Teresa is doing a good job getting to the bottom of what needs doing. A few years ago we replaced our old, non-conforming, under-sized and, finally, blocked fosse. The Spanc man came to check the installation while the terrassier was here doing the work. I’m afraid he was not human or helpful. He suggested we should cut down our trees and also demanded a vent in the middle of the “lawn”. The terrassier negotiated a vent hidden in a bush for us. And afterwards he referred to the Spanc man as “le fonctionnaire”. Not a compliment! :slightly_smiling_face:

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One of our friends says her daughter went to school with our spanc man and apparently he’s not very bright!

Oh dear Fleur… just as well you were able to discuss things with the SPANC man and successfully persuade him to leave the trees alone…

But, I wonder why he wanted a vent in the middle of the lawn… was anything planned under the lawn… sounds very odd…

Ah well, life is strange at the best of times… and gets more so with every passing day…

:zipper_mouth_face::wink::smile::smile::smile: I wonder what he says about her daughter… :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes::stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes::stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

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Exactly. There’s two sides as they say.

There is a scheme that takes school-leavers who have not achieved any qualifications… and encourages their “late-development”. It has some government backing and is proving worthwhile.

I’m not saying the SPANC person falls into that category… but schooling is not everyone’s forte…

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Roots systems and fosse septiques are not good together. The fonc will have had good reason for mentioning the trees.

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Hi Stella, in fact the fosse is in the middle of the « lawn » and the vent outlet is there too. But some lateral thinking on the part of our terrassier (an extension pipe from the outlet underground and the vertical vent in a bush) solved it for us all. The sand filter is some mètres away but deep enough to cover with soil and for grass to regrow. During the works the terrassier privately confessed it might not work, lying as it does on solid limestone several km thick! Fortunately it does work probably due to convenient fissures in the rock. :grin:

SPANC is a great acronym.

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Well we are in the UK at the minute and today we got a call from a company who are going to meet with spanc at our house on Friday. The company rang spanc who took a while to find the last report on our fosse and then said to the contractor the report is a load of rubbish. Strange as it’s there report. Also the guy from spanc who came out to us in June gave us a business card but he wasn’t the guy on the card. So we had spoken to Mr. A thinking we were speaking to Mr. B.
Mr. B thinks our report is rubbish and seems like we’re back to square one.
Interesting times.

For many people, the fosse system is a worry. Ours was installed when the house was built around 1993. It doesn’t conform, like many, as rules have changed. It is now too small. 5000 litres required instead of 3000 litres. Too close to the house. Too close to trees and requires a vent. However, it works as well as it did the day it was installed. We have it emptied of sludge every four years. Our Vidange man states that our sand filter will last a lot longer due to us doing that since we moved here in 2006.
At the moment, the only requirement to change it will be when the house is sold. If the Law changed and we were required to upgrade it ourselves, I’d be inclined to go for a water treatment system as they are cheaper to install.

Our fosse is working perfectly too and other than the filtered water draining into the hedge behind it poses no health risks. We accept it doesn’t conform and that it will cost to put right.
The most annoying issue is that the previous owners had a store built and the concrete approach was put over the first inspection cover. The fosse can still be emptied and the cover is not vital but due to regulations we have to remove the concrete.
If I knew who the builders were I’d be tempted to ask them to come and put it right as the work is under 10 years old.

Interesting - we have a spanc report from the previous owners (along with an old quote for a sandfilter) which identified that work is needed - but doesnt tell us which fosse needs the work! …neither does the diagram show some of the pipework or a “regard” that is clearly apparent in the garden.
We have asked for another report from spanc - another cost but with pipes and drains all over the place we want to know whats what before we start!

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Hi Wendy… do you have more than one Fosse ?? be interesting to hear what SPANC make of it all…

As you say, getting things properly identified and checked does make sense… better to spend a little more now, rather than a lot later on…

good luck

^^^^^^^^ She said SPANC, titter, titter, titter - gets me every time :joy:

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