Sewer system and fossas

[Mike N]

Hi, I've just been informed that the mains sewer system in our area (Sesmarias ) is now ready and that all fossas have to be emptied, cleaned and filled in, and the house now has to be connected to the mains. Failure to repond within 30 days will result in the usual assault on my pocket in the form of fines.
Is this compulsory and does anyone know the kind of costs involved?
Cheers
Mike N

[Gambrinus]

Having recently done this for several properties in Vale da Lapa which were all built to spec for a mains connection once it became available, I can confirm tha the costs varied between 400€ and 1900€, the latter due to a miscalculation in the level of the system in relation with the road forcing the builder to add a 60 meter connection. The average cost was about €900 for isolating the fossa/tanks and connecting up to the mains.

If the house was not built with a connection in mind, you may be faced with the problem that the levels on the whole system are wrong (ie. fossa far away from the road with the sewage line). We have not dealt with a problem like this yet, but as the connection is compulsory, it is safe to assume that the Camera expects you to work around this somehow.

[Jaylay]

Houses on Boavista were the first to have to connect to the mains, there is no choice in the matter and there are more costs than you expect.

First thing that has to be done, is have the work done on your property, ie fill in fossa and get pipes from your property to the man hole in the street nearest to your house ,ours cost only 350€ (as I was lucky to be at home when the workman were putting the mains drains in the street and asked them to ensure the manhole for our property was located as near to our fossa as possible). A neighbour had to have a pump installed as his fossa was situated down hill from the road, so his cost was over 3500€.

You will then find you will get 2 bills from the camera, one for your share of the installation of mains drains in your street and another for the installation of a manhole for your
property.A total for us ofaround 700€.

Boavista consists of mainly Portuguese residents, so there was a petition against these costs saying we never asked for the drains and there was an EU grant for the installation of the mains drains so why did we have to pay. This did not help we all still had to pay want it or not. The penalties for not paying on time are high.

[laserblazer]

Gambrinus what with your job and being a mod, you must love dealing with sh!te.

[pickwick]

Hi

If your fossa is lower than the road could you not do the following. Connect a pipe to the manhole (not connected to anything else but looking the part) and just keep using the fossa. How would the Camara ever know???

Pickwick

[EMM]

It does not matter if there is a mains connection option you still have to pay anyway.

[Gambrinus]

Gambrinus what with your job and being a mod, you must love dealing with sh!te.

One man's shite is the next man's paycheck - just ask the guys driving the fossa trucks.

[Polli62]

Pickwick, we have a fossa that is lower than the road to the mains sewer, we have a macerator in the fossa to pump the sewerage to the mains sewer which is 50 metres away up the road, it cost us an agreement with the council (planning) & contractors approx €2300 7 years ago to connect.We are not in Carvoeiro area but East of Albufeira in a small village.

[laserblazer]

Gambrinus what with your job and being a mod, you must love dealing with sh!te.

One man's shite is the next man's paycheck - just ask the guys driving the fossa trucks.

[Mike N]

Hi, Thanks for the replys. Much as I thought, no choice in the matter and we have to pay. One more question, is there a time limit to have the work to be completed and what do they do if you can't afford it? There are a few residents where we live who I am sure would really struggle with these kind of costs.

[Jaylay]

I know they check up every so often to see which properties are not connected, take it they then contact the owners of those who have not done the required work although I do not know what steps they take to enforce the work being done.

A friend said she could not pay and was told she could apply to pay in installments for the bills that came from the camara.

[Gambrinus]

Incidentally, you also have to pay the connection fee to the camera which if I am not mistaken is 0.3% of what the property is valued at for tax purposes (Valor Patrimonial). This would be the base charge for the connection if it were a new build and although it is an absolute rip off for properties that have already been built decades ago, the Camera won't budge stating that this was not paid when construction was finished and therefore is due now.

In most cases you can offset that cost against the sewage tax refund which the Camera had charged even though the houses were not connected, but in some cases the property has been re-evaluated recently and the valor patrimonial and consequent connection charge is considerably higher.