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View Full Version : Just found out the house we bought in Tenerife has no mains drainage



gsc
16-02-2012, 15:56
Just found out the house we bought in Jan has no mains drainage. It goes to a cess pit underneath the house.

It's not a big deal, the builder says £500 as the mains drainage is right outside the door.

Questions:
Doesn't anyone have any responsibilty to disclose or check things like mains water, drainage etc.?
eg seller, estate agent, solicitor?

£500 seems a lot if the mains are right outside the door? Do they have silly charges like they do in th UK?

Simon-M
16-02-2012, 18:31
I thought this was going to be a complaint about a bar or something. How refreshing to see it is about an actual cess pit :)

gsc
16-02-2012, 18:51
I thought this was going to be a complaint about a bar or something. How refreshing to see it is about an actual cess pit :)
Refreshing isn't quite the word I would use!:whistle:

atlantico
16-02-2012, 19:08
what gave the game away ? Smell ? Blockage ? Massive tank on the patio ? A hole is the ground appeared ? The cesspit men arrived to empty it ?

cressrt
16-02-2012, 19:10
It is not unusual not to be connected to the mains even if it is close. Cess Pits are normally good for 20 years without needing to be emptied; obviously it depends what you put into them. As regards disclosure you need to ask your Estate Agent / Solicitor what questions were asked and if this was one of them, it may have been disclosed but not of concern.

Simon-M
16-02-2012, 20:25
obviously it depends what you put into them.

Is it alright for Cess?

cainaries
16-02-2012, 20:44
Could this be a 'pozo negro' rather than a cesspit? If so, it doesn't work the same way as a cesspit. What is really important to understand is that you should not put toilet paper down the toilet or, indeed, any of the other things you might put down a toilet in the UK. I don't like to go into more detail on here! If you do you will block up your pozo negro which is more likely to be good for 100 years rather than 20 provided you treat it right. I suspect this wasn't mentioned when you bought the house because it is very very common here in the Canaries to have this system - I take it you've bought a fairly old property with some land? Personally, I wouldn't even bother to connect to the mains drainage.

OH says I should explain more clearly! Only put down the toilet that which comes out of the human body. YUK - I bet you're all saying - but this is important to know.

tfs1
16-02-2012, 21:13
We have a (underground) septic tank in our place on the spanish mainland, no problems to date.

To help the 'digestion' process we put down the loo a couple of 'tea bags' every now and then. We get them in a box from Mercadona called 'fosas septicas' I seem to recall, excuse spelling if wrong. Not actually teabags you understand but look like them !

Medman
16-02-2012, 22:03
I thought this was going to be a complaint about a bar or something. How refreshing to see it is about an actual cess pit :)

I thought it was about Brad's youngest child :doh:

Vortex Wake
16-02-2012, 22:16
We had a cess pit in our house in Norfolk - it was always FULL as the water table was higher than the cess pit.

chifleta
16-02-2012, 23:14
I didn't think anywhere in Tenerife had mains drainage... you learn something new every day, and i've been here a longggg time.... every apartment i've lived in has the "pozo negro" as mentioned above..... our community have to have ours emptied probably once a year as the clever person that built this block of flats didn't put the pipes in at the correct angle :scared: .... if you ever see a mini petrol tanker type lorry pull up outside your building SHUT THE WINDOWS QUICK :wow::lol:

gsc
17-02-2012, 03:42
Thanks for the comments all - we do indeed have a pozo negro. By today though we should be on mains drainage and midday tomorrow my sister and I will be slumming it there while the work continues around us. It sounds like we will have a loo and wash basin by the skin of out teeth since they only found the drainage issue yesterday.

The house is a bit of a mystery -the solicitor says build is 1994 but its clearly older than that. I am assuming thats the first time the escritura was done.

No land, it's part of a block second tier back from the harbour in los Abrigos.
Google Pic (http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=los+abrigos&hl=en&ll=28.02887,-16.591094&spn=0.000005,0.002079&hq=los+abrigos&radius=15000&t=m&z=19&layer=c&cbll=28.028867,-16.591091&panoid=4pnvW157hMmgJfNkCz4UTA&cbp=12,140.66,,0,3.34)

Ours is the scruffy one on the left of the pic. :lol:

cainaries
17-02-2012, 15:29
Oh, someone's changed the title of this thread - what a pity - the original was so much more .. er ... interesting!

Good luck with all the works, gsc.

Tom & Sharon
17-02-2012, 15:50
It is not unusual not to be connected to the mains even if it is close. Cess Pits are normally good for 20 years without needing to be emptied; obviously it depends what you put into them. As regards disclosure you need to ask your Estate Agent / Solicitor what questions were asked and if this was one of them, it may have been disclosed but not of concern.

20 years, no eating pie and chips in your house then,you must be permanently on salad :bootyshake:

Tom ;)

AL JAY
17-02-2012, 16:05
*Cancels vindaloo delivery for later* :raspberry: :D









*nibbles lettuce leaf*

gsc
21-02-2012, 05:05
Today we go on mains. Yahooooooo!!!

Vortex Wake
21-02-2012, 07:26
Have a ¢rap on us!

gsc
21-02-2012, 07:28
Today we go on mains. Yahooooooo!!!

Not easy with the builders working and no door on the bathroom yet. :whistle: