Water connection

[Kit]

Hi Kit,

Water is, indeed, a bit of an essential for modern living  

• Eaux de Vienne are the local water suppliers. Their web site is pretty hopeless. They have been promising a new 'consumer-focused website' for a year or two now, but it still hasn't appeared. I think you'd be better calling into their local office or phoning them.
  
  
• It'll be difficult or impossible to arrange water supply without a recognised French address. Could you ask at the Mairie? They will almost certainly have an address for the wreck/building/plot as appropriate!
  
  
• You're right on both counts - there is a standing charge (we pay about 70€/year for standing charge, plus about 1.50€/m cubed (so 0.0015€/litre) plus around 25€ for various charges for anti-pollution, water conservation etc)
  
  
• I don't know the legal position regarding drainage - this would be a good question for your notaire. However, it is the law that waste water from households has to be disposed of in an allowed manner - basically assainissement non-collectif (a microstation or fosse toutes-eaux) or assainissement collectif  ('mains drainage'). Here's what Eaux de Vienne have to say about assainissement non-collectif.
  

Don't be alarmed - this is all perfectly doable!
Do you have a timescale for making the place habitable?

Good luck!
Brian

Thanks Brian - great response (as always  )

We are not back now until spring (a bit cold for staying in the house with no heating etc).  

Having thought about it we DO have an address - I was more thinking about the post box, which we bought in a flurry of excitement and is sitting in the barn.  Very recently all the properties in our small hamlet received numbers, but on a visit to the Marie, we were told that as our house was 'uninhabited' it had not been issued.  

When you say ask the Notaire - is that an option - can we (now almost two years after our purchase) go and ask questions like this?  

In terms of timescales for habitation - possibly two years to get the basics in place (water tight roof, water, rudimentary kitchen and somewhere to sleep that doesn't include small furry companions or large spiders  .