Non-collective sanitation systems must be inspected prior to the sale of the property, whether it is a detached house or a jointly-owned property.
A/ In the case of a house:
Even before signing the preliminary sales agreement or the unilateral promise to sell, the vendor must provide the purchaser with a report on the conformity of the individual sanitation system. This report should be requested from the SPANC.
The report is valid for 3 years. This period is calculated from the date on which the final sale is signed, not the date of the preliminary sale agreement or promise to sell. Therefore, if the compliance report is less than 3 years old on the date of the compromis or promesse de vente, but is more than 3 years old on the date of the final sale, the seller will have to redo it, at his own expense.
If the report, which must be submitted to the purchaser within the validity period, concludes that the system is not compliant, the seller is not obliged to carry out any work to bring it up to standard. He must simply inform the buyer of this conclusion and of the buyer's obligation to bring the system into compliance, at his own expense, within one year of the sale.
If the seller does not wish to have the inspection carried out, and it turns out that the non-collective sanitation system is not compliant, the seller will not have to bear the cost of bringing the system up to standard, but the buyer may bring an action under the warranty for hidden defects. The judge may then order the sale to be cancelled or order the seller to pay damages. So the consequences could be serious!
Here are a few useful points:
=> It is essential to read the report carefully, as it may state that the SPANC was unable to check certain inspection points.
This can happen when, during the inspection visit, the SPANC was technically unable to access the entire system. In such cases, it issues an initial report and asks the vendor to carry out the work that will enable the SPANC to check the entire system. Two reports will therefore be drawn up: the first covering the visible points, and the second covering the points still to be inspected, which will be carried out on the points made visible by the owner's action. It's important not to be satisfied with the first report, and to draw the buyer's attention to the fact that he or she may have to spend money on the points not seen during the first inspection, if these ultimately reveal non-compliance.
=> If you are selling a house that has been completed less than 3 years previously, you will need to produce a compliance report. In principle, a compliance report will have been produced when the on-site sewage treatment system was commissioned. If this was not the case, the seller will be required to produce the inspection report, which he will request from the SPANC at his own expense, even if the system was commissioned less than 3 years ago.
=> The inspection report must be produced even if the non-collective sanitation system was emptied less than 3 years ago. It should be noted that this emptying is recommended every 4 years for an all-water tank. It may be worth asking the seller for the most recent emptying invoice, for information purposes.
B/ In the case of a condominium :
If you are selling a flat in a condominium with a shared on-site sewage system, the inspection report must be requested by the property manager. The cost of drawing up the report will be divided between the co-owners according to the percentage of each lot.
Before putting the property up for sale, the selling owner should therefore ask the syndic to submit the report to the general meeting for approval. Only the selling owner will have an interest in this report. You should therefore bear in mind that it will sometimes be difficult to obtain the required agreement quickly. For the rest, the same rules apply as those described for a single-family home.
