Compensation and guaranteed standards of service

If we have to carry out planned work which involves interrupting your water supply for more than four hours, we’ll let you know at least 48 hours before the interruption will start and will tell you when we expect the supply to be restored.

For our domestic customers if we fail to correctly notify you of the interruption or if the supply is not restored in the stated time, we’ll automatically credit your water services account with £50.

For our non-household customers if we fail to correctly notify you of the interruption or if the supply is not restored in the stated time, we’ll automatically credit your water services account with £100.

For non-household customers, if you do not receive the credit via your retailer to your account within 20 working days and this is due to our actions, you will be entitled to an additional payment of £40, which we’ll automatically send to your retailer to credit to your account.

Payments for planned supply interruptions will not apply under the following circumstances:

• Industrial action by our employees makes it unfeasible for us to give the correct notice at least 48 hours before the supply was cut off.
• The act or default of a person other than our representative made it unfeasible for us to give the correct notice at least 48 hours before the supply was cut off.
• It’s impractical for us to have identified you as being affected, and you haven’t made a claim within three months of the date on which the supply was cut off.

Clearly, we cannot notify you before an unplanned interruption, such as a burst. However, we aim to restore your supply within 12 hours.

If the interruption extends beyond that, we’ll automatically compensate you for this and each additional period of 12 hours during which the interruption continues.

If we believe the interruption period is going to be significant, where possible, we’ll arrange an alternative supply.

For domestic customers if we fail to restore the supply within 12 hours, we’ll automatically credit your water services account with £50. A further automatic payment of £50 will be made for each additional period of 12 hours during which the interruption continues.

Identifying all properties and customers affected by an interruption can be difficult. Where this is the case and you’ve been affected by an interruption, but we haven’t contacted you, to obtain any compensation, you must make a claim (either orally or in writing) within three months following the date on which the supply was interrupted or cut off. If you’d like to make a claim, please contact us.

If we were aware you had been affected by an interruption and we fail to provide you of the compensation due to you within 20 working days of the date of interruption, you may be entitled to a further penalty payment of £40, which we’ll automatically credit to your water services account.

For non-household customers if we fail to restore the supply within 12 hours, we’ll automatically send a credit your retailer.  Your retailer will then add a credit of £100 to your water services account with them.  A further automatic credit of £100 will be made to your retailer to add to your account with them for each additional period of 12 hours during which the interruption continues.

Identifying all properties and customers affected by an interruption can be difficult. Where this is the case and you’ve been affected by an interruption, but your retailer hasn’t contacted you or added a credit to your account with them, to obtain any compensation, you must make a claim (via your retailer either orally or in writing) within three months following the date on which the supply was interrupted or cut off. 

If we were aware you had been affected by an interruption and we fail to provide the appropriate credit to your retailer, due to you within 20 working days of the date of interruption, you may be entitled to a further penalty payment of £100.  We’ll automatically send this credit to your retailer to credit to your water services account that you have with them.

Payments for unplanned supply interruptions will not apply under the following circumstances:

• It’s impractical for us to have identified you as being affected, and you haven’t made a claim within three months of the date on which the supply was cut off.
• Severe weather prevented the supply being restored;
• Where the supply was interrupted or cut off due to a leak or burst on a strategic main, or for any other unplanned reason, the circumstances were so exceptional that it would be unreasonable to expect the supply to be restored within the relevant period;
• The regulation does not apply where supply is interrupted or cut off due to a drought.

For both domestic and non-household customers if, due to unplanned events, you experience significant low pressure – less than seven metres static head (0.7 bar) in your communication pipe – for more than one hour on two separate occasions within a 28-day period you will be entitled to a £50 compensation payment, up to a maximum of £250 a year. We’ll credit our domestic customer water services accounts directly with this compensation amount.  For non-household customers, we will send the credit to your retailer for them to credit to your water services account that you have with them.

As identifying all properties affected by low water pressure can be difficult, you should make a claim to ensure you receive this compensation. Domestic claims must be made in writing within three months of the second occasion directly to Southern Water. If you’d like to make a claim, please contact us.  For non-household customers, please make any claims via your retailer.

Sewer flooding – general

Normally, we’ll aim to respond to a complaint of sewer flooding within two hours of the first report of flooding entering a property (internal) and within 24 hours if flooding is outside a property (external).

Where possible, we’ll also provide a disinfection service within 12 hours (internal flooding) or within 24 hours (external flooding).

Internal flooding

For domestic and non-household customers if your premises are internally flooded due to a failure of our drainage system, you’ll be eligible for a payment of an amount equivalent to your annual wastewater charge, from a minimum of £300 to a maximum of £2,000 for each incident and these increase if you have more than one incident in a 12 month period. We’ll credit our domestic customer accounts directly with this compensation amount. For non-household customers, we’ll send the credit to your retailer for them to credit to your account that you have with them.

We’ll write to you within 20 working days of the incident, enclosing details of payment and informing you of the action we plan to take and any investigations we intend to carry out.

If you do not receive a payment or credit to your account within 20 working days of the incident, domestic customers will be entitled to an additional payment of £40, which we’ll automatically credit to your account. Non-household customers will be entitled to an additional payment of £100, which we’ll automatically send to your retailer to credit to your account.

External flooding

For domestic and non-household customers if your property is flooded externally due to a failure of our drainage system, you may claim an amount equivalent to half your annual sewerage charges – from a minimum of £150 to a maximum of £1000 and these increase if you have more than one incident in a 12 month period.

You must make a claim within three months of the incident and provide information to prove you were materially affected by the flooding incident.  Domestic customers can claim directly from us using the form below, non-household customers will need to claim via their retailer.

If you are a domestic customer, and you have any photographs of the flooding, please include them when you submit our external flooding claim form. Forms can also be requested by calling our Contact Centre on 0330 303 0368 (calls charged at local rate).

For domestic customers we’ll write to you within 20 working days of receiving your substantiated claim, enclosing details of your payment.

For non-household customers we’ll make any payments to your retailer to credit onto your account that you hold with them.

For domestic customers, if we fail to send you a cheque or credit your account within 20 working days of receiving your claim, you’ll be entitled to an additional payment of £40. For non-household customers if you do not receive a credit to your account attributable to our late payment to your retailer (within 20 working days of receiving your claim), you’ll be entitled to an additional payment of £100.  We’ll pay this to your retailer to credit to your account that you hold with them.

Internal and external flooding

If you experience both internal and external flooding in one incident, the payment you’re entitled to will be calculated based on internal flooding.

Conditions

In all cases, payments will not apply if:

• you notified us more than three months after your property was flooded
• we have already made a payment to the same customer in respect of the same incident
• the flooding was caused by: an abnormal or unforeseeable event, including a natural event, outside the control of the company, the consequences of which could not have been avoided by the exercise of all due care by the company; industrial action by the company’s employees; the actions of the customer; a defect, inadequacy or blockage in the customer’s drains or sewers for internal sewer flooding; or
• the customer was not materially affected by the incident

In deciding whether a customer has been materially affected by the incident companies must take into account what parts of the customer's land or property the effluent entered, the duration of the flooding, whether the flooding restricted access to the land or property, whether the flooding restricted the use of the land or property and any other relevant considerations of which the company is aware.

Account queries – Domestic customers only

We aim to respond to written account queries within five working days.

If we fail to respond to a written account query regarding the correctness of our charges within 10 working days of receiving your query, we’ll automatically credit your water services account with £40.

If we fail to credit your account within 10 working days of our reply, you’ll be entitled to a further penalty payment of £40, which we’ll automatically credit to your water services account.

We’ll respond to a request to change your payment method within five working days of receiving your request.

If we can’t agree to the request and fail to meet this standard, we’ll automatically credit your water services account with £40.

If we fail to credit your account within 10 working days of our reply, you’ll be entitled to a further payment of £40, which we’ll automatically credit to your water services account.

For domestic customers we aim to make a full response to a written complaint within five working days of receiving your letter.  If we fail to send a reply within 10 working days, we’ll automatically credit your water services account with £40.

For non-household customers if we fail to send a reply within 10 working days via your retailer, we’ll automatically send your retailer a credit to be applied to your water services account that you hold with them for £40.

For domestic customers if we fail to send you a refund cheque or a credit to your account within 10 working days of our reply, you’ll be entitled to a further penalty payment of £40, which we’ll automatically credit to your water services account.

For non-household customers if we fail to send the credit to your retailer within 10 working days of our reply, you’ll be entitled to a further penalty payment of £40. We’ll pay this to your retailer to credit to your account that you hold with them.

We operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you report an emergency, an appointment on a future date isn’t appropriate and we’ll respond as quickly as we can.

When we need to visit you at your premises and you need to be present, we’ll advise you whether our visit will take place either morning (before 12pm) or afternoon (after 12pm). You can request the visit to take place in a two-hour period (if preferred).

For household and business customers, if we book the appointment incorrectly by failing to specify a morning/afternoon slot — or two-hour slot, if requested — we’ll automatically credit your account with £40. For business customers we send to your retailer to credit your account.

If we don’t keep the appointment as made — the agreed day, morning/afternoon slot as specified, or two-hour time slot if agreed — or we cancel the appointment with less than 24 hours’ notice we’ll credit your account with £50. For business customers we’ll send this to your retailer to credit your account.

Payments will not apply under the following circumstances:

• You cancel the appointment.
• We cancel the appointment, giving at least 24 hours’ notice.
• Keeping the appointment isn’t possible due to severe weather.
• Keeping the appointment isn’t possible due to industrial action by our employees.
• Keeping the appointment isn’t possible due to an act or default by someone outside our organisation. 

If we fail to credit your account within 10 working days of the missed appointment date, you’ll be entitled to an additional account credit of £40. If you’re business customer, we’ll send this via your retailer.  

Very rarely, we may contact you with a Water Quality Notice to let you know about an issue that has affected or may affect your water. If this happens, you may need to restrict or change how you use your water, If this happens, we’ll arrange for you to receive an alternative water supply until the problem has been resolved.

For household customers, if your water quality has not been restored after 48 hours of the notice being issued, you’ll receive an automatic account credit of £40. If we still haven’t restored your water quality after another 24 hours, you’ll receive an extra £20 credit for each 24 hour period until your water is safe to drink.

For business customers, if your water quality has not been restored after 48 hours of the notice being issued, we’ll send a payment of £60 to your retailer to credit your account. If we still haven’t restored your water quality after another 24 hours, you’ll receive an extra £40 credit for each 24-hour period until your water is safe to drink.

If compensation isn’t made within 20 days of your water quality being restored, you may be entitled to an additional £40 credit.
This won’t apply if:

• you caused the water to become polluted, contaminated or unsafe as per section 72 or 73 of the Water Industry Act 1991
• the water quality notice was served due to drought or immediately following a period of drought
• the water supply to your premises is interrupted or cut-off by your supplier  under section 75(7) of the Water Industry Act 1991.

Find out more about our drinking water quality.  

If you haven’t paid your bill and you owe us money, we’ll send you an Outstanding Charge Notice before taking legal action or issuing a default. An Outstanding Charges Notice will include:

• what charges are outstanding, what these relate to and how they are calculated
• any relevant meter details
• details of how you can contact us to acknowledge you’ve received the notice, as well as how to contact us to dispute the charges or arrange a payment.

If we don’t send you an Outstanding Charges Notice you may be entitled to £150 credit to your account, and an extra £40 if we don’t pay this within 20 working days.

We read most of our meters every six months either manually for older meters, or automatically for digital meters. Meter reading dates are scheduled by area, so if you’ve just moved into your new home, you may not have to wait as long before your first reading.

Most meters are located outside, and we do not need you to be in to read them. If you have an internal meter and are not at home when we try to read it, you will be left a card with details of how to provide us with a reading. 

For non-smart  meters, from 1 October 2025, we must read your meter at least once every 13 months. If your meter has not been read in a 13-month period after 1 October 2025 we’ll credit your account with £40, and if it is not read for a second or subsequent 13-month period, you’ll receive an extra £80 credit if it has been possible for us to get a reading. If we don’t automatically apply this credit within 20 working days of when it’s due, you may also be entitled to an additional £40.

Payments will not apply if:

• you have a smart or digitally read meter
• we’ve been unable to read the meter because we have been refused access, or the meter has been obstructed
• the meter has not been read due to industrial action by our employees
• an action or obstruction by someone outside our organisation has prevented us reading the meter
• it is impractical or unsafe to read the meter.

You’re entitled to receive a high standard of service from us, and we always try to give every one of our customers the best care. However, we know some of our customers — for example, the elderly or disabled — may have extra needs and concerns.

To help us provide everyone with the best possible service, we keep a confidential list of customers who have individual needs.

Our Priority Services Register

Our Priority Services Register lets us know about our customers who have special circumstances and may need additional support. If you’re on our register, we can provide the following services for free:

• Bottled water delivery if you lose your water supply.
• Bills in large print or braille.
• Talking bills.
• CDs or audio — we can convert letters, leaflets or bills into audio formats.
• The option to send bills to friends or carers so they can help you understand them .
• Frequent water meter reading service.
• Advice on how you can save water and special water-efficient appliances for your home.
• Password scheme.

Core Priority Services Register

You’ll be added to our Core Priority Service Register if you’ve told us you:

• have a specific reason for needing priority delivery of bottled water if you lose water supply. An example of this may be home dialysis.
• need us to provide your bills in an alternative format such as braille
• have a Power of Attorney in place.

Once you’ve been added to our Core Priority Service Register, we’ll write to you within 30 days to let you know you about the support you’ll receive. If we don’t do this, or we don’t deliver the support we’ve said we’ll provide, you may be eligible for a credit of £100 to your account, and an extra £40 if we don’t pay within 20 working days.