Peter, perhaps I wasn’t clear.
It is not the notaire’s fault. Either the vendor made a false declaration or the agent did. Either way, any buyer will negotiate the cost of connection with Caryn and that is a shame because it is not her fault either.
Might still be the case… that mains drainage does run somewhere…
I know of a townhouse property (in Charente) where the Seller had said that the sewer… joined the mains in the road at the front of the house… fair enough…
Whereas, by chance we discovered the “raindrain” … at the back of the house was actually the sewer and connected into the mains in the road behind the property…
bizarre things do happen… 
If it is a properly in a village house it does seem unlikely it wouldn’t be on mains. I wonder if they just couldn’t find it!
I agree that it is unlikely but I have seen many houses that, because they are older than the mains drainage installation, have never been connected. So, even if they have a perfectly functioning individual system, the mairie will insist that any new owner must connect. Besides, it’s usually cheaper than bringing the existing fosse septique up to normes.
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It’s actually a town house Tony so we were surprised by Saur’s results. Stella’s example gives us hope, all will be revealed this week…
So the mystery is solved! Saur went to the house yesterday with a map of the town’s drainage to show the estate agent.It clearly shows the house is not connected to main drains.Why they couldn’t have produced this before we paid them 95 euros to put dye down the toilet…
We now have 2 builders excavating the garden looking for the waste pipe and fosse. We believe the lady we bought the house from in 2016 thought it was mains drainage,but suspect the elderly french man who sold it to her in 2007 knew it wasn’t! We lose!
No sign or smell of the fosse, poss because the lady used it as a holiday home and visited infrequently and we only lived there for 7 months before letting it through Homeaway and airbnb.
If there are large and luxuriant patches of nettles growing, that is often a sign of a fosse / soak away nearby. Apparently! Good luck!
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We have an inordinately large silk tree in our garden due to its being planted right by the soak away of the old bac à graisse (no more than a concreted hole in the ground with an exit pipe). When we did the renovations all of that had to go and the new system - fosse toutes eaux (to my mind not as good) - was directed the other side of the house. Sadly, in recent years the silk tree has showed it misses that soak away and quite large chunks of it are dying.
Did the buyer’s pull out?
I found my foss by Dowsing with 2 métal hangars bent in to shape as shown on u tube. I have also found underground pipes using the same method. Dont ask me Why it works but for me it does !
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As the actress said to the bishop…
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It’s easy to see if the previous owner knew if it was or wasn’t on mains drainage, just look at previous Actes de Vente. What is mentioned on tyour Acte ?
My one is marked ‘tout a l’egout’ which puts me in the clear at least ! An inspection was carried out before I resold only to find it was actually on a septic tank. The buyers had a problem which was none of my making though I did help them in other ways to compensate a bit.
No the buyer couldn’t pull out,but his notaire had put a clause in the CdeV that if the house wasn’t on mains drains we had to put it right.We didn’t query it as our estate agent (same one who sold us the house 4 years ago) was convinced that it was. Nasty shock,but we want to sell the house so we are where we are!
We have been shocked when we tried it to work out where we have underground water, it is soooo obvious and there is no way you could cheat it! Amazing! I always thought it was a bit of an old wives tale until I tried it!
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I wish it was That easy with my new house it said in the papers that the seller had to fix the roof before I moved in and they said that they had done it but a week after I moved in with the first rain it still leaked in and then I contacted the agent and the lawyer that it was not much I could do the tried contact the seller but it took along time end then when they got him on the phone they asked what company that had done the work so I could claim the insurance of the roofers it all went quite the lawyer’s told me the seller probably tried fixing it himself instead of having a company doing it so I was technically fk it wold cost me allot to go after the seller
That’s awful Martin, you would think the agent and notaire would ask to see some form of guarantee from an artisan before releasing all the funds to the seller. Because we can’t get quotes from builders and Saur in particular before the signing on Monday we have to leave 10,000 euros with the notaire and I get the impression from the agent that the notaire would not allow his client to purchase the property without this money available to fix the problem.
This was all going on during the lockdown
Ah I understand Martin, very difficult times. So I should say congratulations on buying the house and I wish you well for the future!
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Peter, we have found our Compromis de Vente and our Acte de Vente from October 2016 and our seller (the english lady) has signed a declaration in front of the notaire that the property is connected to mains drains. Does this mean that we are not liable for the costs of getting it connected?
Of course you are liable I suppose unless you can prove the seller deliberately kept the truth from you.
I had the same problem when I bought my last property and was blissfully unaware of the septic tank buried under the driveway until 13 years later when the SPANC did a test for I resold the place. My Compromis and Acte A also noted the property was on mains drainage.