Water Act 1989

79 Restrictions on power to make connection and certain other charges

(1) Subject to subsection (2) below, nothing in this Chapter or in any other enactment shall entitle any water undertaker or sewerage 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 purposes of any premises.

(2) Subject to subsection (3) below, nothing in subsection (1) above or in any other enactment shall be construed as prohibiting the fixing, demand or recovery by a water undertaker or sewerage undertaker of—

(a) a charge for the connection to a water supply of premises which have never at any previous time (whether before or on or after the transfer date) 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 enactment; or

(b) a charge for the connection to a public sewer of premises which have never at any previous time (whether before or on or after the transfer date) been connected to a sewer used for the drainage for domestic 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 enactment.

(3) Nothing in this Chapter or in any other enactment or in the terms of any agreement under section 18 of the [1936 c. 49.] Public Health Act 1936 (agreements to adopt sewers and works) 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 Part II of that Act or in respect of any agreement to make such a declaration.

(4) Nothing in this Chapter or in any other enactment shall authorise a sewerage undertaker to require any payment to be made to the undertaker by a highway authority in respect of the drainage of any highway or the disposal of the contents of any drain or sewer used for draining any highway.

(5) The preceding provisions of this section, so far as they restrict the making of certain charges, are without prejudice—

(a) to enactments by virtue of which a water undertaker or sewerage undertaker may recover expenses incurred by it in carrying out works; and

(b) to the power of any such undertaker, by virtue of section 75(3) above, to fix the amount of any of its other charges by reference to such matters as it thinks appropriate.

(6) The references in this section to domestic purposes, in relation to the drainage of any premises, shall be construed as references to any of the purposes mentioned in subsection (2)(a) of section 71 above.