Macerating toilet

Ian – your Owners Corporation needs to take into consideration that the household sewerage system that its required to maintain is designed to operate under gravity, and to accept gradual and intermittent inflows calculated on the basis of the numbers of Lots in the building, and on the numbers / types of connected fixtures and fittings within them.

Those systems are not designed to accept pumped inflows, or more viscous materials than those that can be reasonably expected from the use of household kitchens, laundries, and bathrooms, and that’s precisely why most Australian Water Utilities used to prohibit the installation of below-sink garbage grinders in multi-unit-developments.

That prohibition’s been lifted now, not so much due to design improvements in household sewerage systems but moreso due to residents’ preference to use the now more readily available collection systems (including for recyclables), and to a lesser extent after intense lobbying of Governments by a major importer who doesn’t have to compensate those Owners Corporations (O/C) for their costs to clear those multiple sewerage blockages that, perhaps coincidentally, occur several metres downstream from their product/s.

All slightly off-topic, but nonetheless relevant to and synonymous with the potential impacts arising from the installation / connection of a macerating toilet to the household sewerage system serving a laundry!

In addition, they’re noisy, often odorous, and prone to blockage if residents think that they’re using a normal gravity-based toilet and continue to flush hair, dental floss, facial tissues, cotton wool etc etc.

As you can guess, my response would be a resounding NO particularly in a high-rise situation, but on the subject of the O/C’s consent, if any part of the proposed installation is attached to the floor or to a perimeter wall of the Lot involved then (non)consent is required, and otherwise the proponent only needs to give the O/C 14 days written notice of their intention to alter a “service” within their Lot, including the details of the plumber undertaking those works.