The Water and Sewerage Services (Northern Ireland) Order 2006

Connection charges

206.—(1) Subject to paragraph (2), nothing in this Chapter or in any other statutory provision shall entitle any relevant undertaker to fix, demand or recover an initial charge for its becoming, or for its taking steps for the purpose of becoming—

(a) the person who provides a supply of water for domestic purposes to any premises; or

(b) the person who provides sewerage services for the purposes of the drainage for domestic sewerage purposes of any premises.

(2) Subject to paragraph (3), nothing in paragraph (1) or in any other statutory provision shall be construed as prohibiting the fixing, demand or recovery by a relevant undertaker of—

(a) a charge for the connection to a water supply of premises which have never at any previous time (whether before or after the coming into operation of the restriction contained in this Article) been connected to a supply of water provided for domestic purposes by a water undertaker or by any other authority or body which at that time provided supplies of water in the course of carrying out functions under any statutory provision; or

(b) a charge for the connection to a public sewer of premises which have never at any previous time (whether before or after the coming into operation of the restriction contained in this Article) been connected to a sewer used for the drainage for domestic sewerage purposes of those premises by a sewerage undertaker or by any other authority or body which at that time provided sewerage services in the course of carrying out functions under any statutory provision.

(3) Nothing in this Chapter or in any other statutory provision or in the terms of any agreement under Article 161 shall authorise a sewerage undertaker to require any payment to be made to the undertaker in respect of the making by the undertaker of any declaration of vesting under Chapter II of Part VI or in respect of any agreement to make such a declaration.

(4) The preceding provisions of this Article, so far as they restrict the making of certain charges, shall be without prejudice—

(a) to statutory provisions by virtue of which a relevant undertaker may recover expenses incurred by it in carrying out works; and

(b) to the power of any such undertaker, by virtue of Article 200(7), to fix the amount of any of its other charges by reference to such matters as it thinks appropriate.

(5) In this Article “domestic sewerage purposes” has the same meaning as in Chapter II of Part VI.