Connecting to water in France

French water connections

Connecting to water in France is a case of talking to the Mairie to find out where you should go and who you should be talking to. In most cases you’ll be directed to the local water board office, but in some small villages such as “Puissalicon” in the Herault region, the water supply is handled directly by the Mairie.

Different offices may require different types of paperwork from you in order to transfer the service into your name. As a general rule of thumb a copy of your “Attestation de Proprieté” will do for most things. This is a legal document produced by the Notaire when you buy a property in France and basically says that you are the new owner of that property.

When you buy a new house in France it takes a while for all the paperwork to filter its way through the government systems. Therefore, when you connect to the water supply in France it can take several months for your first bill to come through. This is perfectly normal so don’t worry.

Once you receive your first bill you will see that they prefer you to pay by direct debit. This seems to be the norm with the services in France. We prefer to pay by cheque and do so without any bother. However, if you’re using your house as a holiday home and have a Euro bank account from a UK bank they may not be happy to accept a cheque. This is because the international banking system charges the recipient for cashing a Euro cheque drawn form a foreign bank. The easiest thing to do is open a French bank account. Then you can either pay by direct debit or pay by cheque.