Eau- water charges

[Fred]

If your water is turned off at a property and the house is empty why do we still have to pay water abonnement & assainissement charges? Or do we?

I have a house that is a ruin and everthing is turned off. It is not habitable but I still get a bill each year? 

Anyone else with this

Many thanks

The abbonnment is for the water supply being available for you to turn on and off. You can ask them to turn it off at their end in the road (or wherever it is) but you will have to pay for reconnection if you ever want to use water again. We was told they would charge around the €180 to be reconnected, so if you will 100% never want water there again you may as well have it cut off. But if there is a chance you may want water again sometime in the future it's probably best left on.

The assainissemnt charge is for the facility of having mains drainage. I don't think you could completely stop the charge as you obviously have mains drains on your property, but the charge is based on your water usage so it should be low if you're not using any water.

Hope that helps and that is by my own experience of having one property on the mains drainage and one old ruin without mains drainage but a water connection. But your local water office will be able to give you a better idea of costs.