The Water and Sewerage Services (Northern Ireland) Order 2006

Agreements to adopt water main or service pipe at a future date

86.—(1) Subject to paragraphs (2) and (10), a water undertaker may agree with any person constructing or proposing to construct—

(a) any water main; or

(b) any service pipe,

that, if the water main or service pipe is constructed in accordance with the terms of the agreement, the undertaker will, upon completion of the work, at some specified date or on the happening of some future event, declare the water main or (as the case may be) so much of the service pipe as the undertaker could otherwise, by virtue of Articles 79 to 85, be required to lay, to be vested in that undertaker.

(2) Paragraph (1) shall not apply in the case of water mains or service pipes which are to be used (in whole or in part) for the purpose of supplying water other than for domestic purposes, but—

(a) nothing in this Article shall prevent a water undertaker from agreeing apart from this Article to declare any such water main or service pipe (or a part of it, as specified in the agreement) to be vested in the undertaker; and

(b) such a declaration shall take effect as a declaration made under this Chapter.

(3) A person constructing or proposing to construct a water main or a service pipe to which paragraph (1) applies may make an application in writing to a water undertaker requesting the undertaker to make an agreement under this Article.

(4) An application under paragraph (3) shall be accompanied and supplemented by all such information as the undertaker may reasonably require; but subject to paragraph (5) and without prejudice to the effect (if any) of any other contravention of the requirements of this Article in relation to such an application, a failure to provide information in pursuance of the obligation to supplement such an application shall not invalidate the application.

(5) Where—

(a) a person who has made an application to a water undertaker under paragraph (3) has failed to comply with his obligation under this Article to supplement that application with information required by the undertaker; and

(b) that requirement was made by the undertaker at such a time before the end of the period within which the undertaker is required, by virtue of Article 87, to respond to the application as gave that person a reasonable opportunity to provide the required information within that period,

the undertaker may delay its response to the application until a reasonable time after the required information is provided.

(6) In deciding whether or on what terms to grant an application under paragraph (3), a water undertaker shall have regard in particular to any effect or potential effect on the quality of water supplies and to any increased danger to life or health which it considers may result.

(7) The terms of an agreement under paragraph (1) relating to a water main may, in particular, include terms—

(a) for the provision (at the expense of the person constructing or proposing to construct the water main) by—

(i) that person; or

(ii) the water undertaker,

of such associated infrastructure at or downstream of the point of connection with the undertaker’s supply system as it is necessary to provide in consequence of incorporating the new water main into that system;

(b) providing that, if the water main and the associated infrastructure are constructed in accordance with the terms of the agreement, the undertaker will, in addition to declaring the water main to be vested in it, declare the associated infrastructure to be so vested;

(c) where the undertaker considers that the proposed main is, or is likely to be, needed for the provision of water supply services in addition to those for which the person is proposing to construct the main—

(i) requiring that person to construct the main in a manner differing, as regards material or size of pipes, depth or otherwise, from the manner in which that person proposes, or could otherwise be required by the undertaker, to construct it; and

(ii) providing for the repayment by the undertaker of any extra expense reasonably incurred by that person in complying with that requirement;

(d) for the connection of the new water main to the undertaker’s existing supply system at the point or points specified in the agreement;

(e) for any service pipes which the person constructing or proposing to construct the new water main proposes to connect to that main to be constructed in accordance with the terms of the agreement and, subject to that, to be vested in the undertaker at the same time as the main.

(8) The terms of an agreement under paragraph (1) relating to a service pipe may, in particular, include terms—

(a) for the connection of the new service pipe to the undertaker’s existing supply system at the point or points specified in the agreement;

(b) for such requirements of the kind referred to in Article 82(2) as may be applicable to be complied with before connection takes place.

(9) An agreement made under this Article by a water undertaker shall be enforceable against the undertaker by the owner or occupier for the time being of any premises connected or to be connected with the water main or service pipe to which it relates.

(10) A water undertaker shall not make an agreement under this Article with respect to a water main or a service pipe situated within the area of another water undertaker, until either—

(a) that other undertaker has consented in writing to the making of the agreement; or

(b) the Authority, on an application made to it, has dispensed with the necessity for such consent, either unconditionally or subject to such conditions as the Authority may think fit to impose.