The Water Supply and Sewerage Services (Customer Service Standards) Regulations 1989

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations provide for customers of water and sewerage undertakers to be entitled to a payment or credit where the undertaker fails to maintain certain minimum standards of service in connection with the supply of water or sewerage services to domestic premises.

Regulation 3 provides for a payment or credit of £5 where an undertaker gives notice of a proposed visit by its representative to domestic premises on a particular day and no visit is made on that day. The right to a payment is subject to the exceptions set out in paragraph (3) of the regulation.

Regulation 4 provides for a payment or credit of £5 if an undertaker fails within a specified period to respond to a query concerning the correctness of an account or a request to change the arrangements by which a customer pays his accounts to which the undertaker is not prepared to accede.

Regulation 5 makes similar provision where an undertaker fails to deal within a specified period with a written complaint about the quality, pressure or adequacy of the water supply to domestic premises or about the sewerage services supplied to such premises by or on behalf of an undertaker.

Regulation 6 requires the undertaker to notify the customer of the time by which the supply will be restored where it has been cut off in circumstances in which the undertaker is required to give notice under section 49(2) of the 1989 Act. Where the water supply to domestic premises has been interrupted or cut off to allow emergency works to be carried out the regulation also requires the undertaker to take all reasonable steps to notify affected customers of that fact, where any alternative supply may be obtained, of the time by which it is proposed the supply should be restored and of the telephone number of an office from which further information may be obtained.

Regulation 7 provides for a payment or credit of £5 or a multiple of £5 in certain circumstances where the water supply to domestic premises is not restored within the specified period.

The Regulations require that customers be given details of the rights conferred upon them by the Regulations (regulation 8); and also provide for the reference of disputes about payments or credits under the Regulations to the Director General of Water Services (regulation 11).

Customers who are in default for more than 6 weeks in paying their bills are not normally entitled to payments or credits under the Regulations but credits against indebtedness may be made in certain circumstances (regulation 9). Payment under the Regulations is not to affect the other legal rights or liabilities of the undertaker or of the customer (regulation 10).