My house is flooded

Guaranteed Standards of Service payment

If you experience flooding inside your property because of a failure of our systems, we’ll automatically make a payment to you of an amount equivalent to your annual wastewater charge. This will be from a minimum of £150 to a maximum of £1,000 for each incident. These payments are not compensation or an admission of liability.

What will happen following your claim:

1. We’ll write to you within 20 working days of the incident. The letter will include the following information:

• • More about the payment.
  • What steps we have to take as a direct result of the incident.
  • Any investigations we need to carry out.

2. We’ll send you a cheque or credit your account within 20 working days of the flooding incident. 

3. If we’re late with the payment, you’ll get an extra £20 as a credit to your account.

We may not make these payments if any of the following situations apply:

• the flooding was caused by your actions
• the flooding was caused by exceptional rainfall
• our investigation confirms that the flooding was caused by a third-party issue, such as surface water running off land, a flooded river, a problem with a private or highway drain.

Conditions may apply.

We know how distressing it can be to experience flooding, so here’s how we can help to get it sorted as soon as possible.

Call our 24-hour emergency number

If your property is flooded, please call us straightaway on our 24-hour emergency number: 0330 303 0368.

What could have caused this?

There are times when a house is flooded because of a burst pipe or water main, or it could be a leak from another source. 

Insurance claims

We have strict liability for freshwater flooding. That means we’ll pay the cost of replacing damaged property or lost items.

You'll need to make claims for damage or loss to your own insurers as they will settle claims on a new for old basis. They’ll tell you what you need to do to meet the terms and conditions of your policy and recover anything they’ve paid out from us.

We'll also pay any insurance excess you’ve had to pay.

If you’re not insured, then we’ll deal directly with you. We’ll settle claims based on an item’s current age and value, including wear and tear, rather than on a ‘new for old’ basis.

Guaranteed standards of service payment 

If you've experienced external flooding caused by a failure of our systems, you may claim an amount equivalent to half your annual sewerage charges, from a minimum of £75 to a maximum of £500.

To claim, you’ll need to apply within three months of the incident. The first step is to fill in our External Flooding claim form or get in touch with us. 

These payments are not compensation or an admission of liability.

We may not make these payments if any of the following situations apply:

• The flooding was caused by your actions.
• The flooding was caused by exceptional rainfall.
• Our checks confirm that the flooding was caused by a third-party issue, such as surface water running off land, a flooded river, or a problem with a private or highway drain.

Conditions may apply.