The Water Supply and Sewerage Services (Customer Service Standards) (Amendment) Regulations 1993

7.  After regulation 7 there shall be inserted the following regulations—

“Installation of meters

7A.— (1) Where a customer who is entitled to do so requests a water undertaker to install a meter the undertaker shall install the meter within 15 working days of payment of the installation charge, and where the installation charge is payable by instalments the undertaker shall install the meter within 15 working days of payment of the first such instalment.

(2) If a water undertaker fails to install a meter in accordance with paragraph (1) the undertaker shall, except in the circumstances described in paragraph (3), pay to the customer (or credit to his account) the sum of £10.

(3) The circumstances described in this paragraph are that severe weather conditions or industrial action by the employees of the undertaker or the act or default of a person other than an officer, employee or agent of the undertaker or a person acting on behalf of its agent made it impracticable to install the meter within the relevant period.

(4) In this regulation, “meter” means any apparatus for measuring or showing the volume of water supplied to any premises.

Flooding from sewers

7B.— (1) Effluent from a sewer which is vested in a sewerage undertaker shall not enter a customer’s building.

(2) Where effluent from a sewer which is vested in a sewerage undertaker does enter a customer’s building the undertaker shall, except in the circumstances described in paragraph (3), pay to the customer (or credit to his account) whichever is the lesser of—

(a) a sum equal to the sewerage charges payable by him to the undertaker for the financial year in which the incident occurs; and

(b) the sum of £1,000.

(3) The circumstances described in this paragraph are—

(a) that a payment under this regulation has already been made to the customer in respect of the same financial year; or

(b) that the entry of effluent was caused by one or more of the following, namely—

(i) exceptional weather conditions;

(ii) industrial action by the employees of the undertaker;

(iii) the actions of the customer or any defect, inadequacy or blockage in his drains or sewers; or

(c) that the customer has not made a written claim for a payment under this regulation within 3 months following the date on which the effluent entered his building.

(4) For the purposes of this regulation—

(a) “building” includes a space beneath a suspended floor of a building;

(b) effluent shall not be treated as entering a building while it is in a drain or sewer.

Payments and credits under regulations 3, 4, 5 and 7A

7C.— (1) Where a water or sewerage undertaker is required by regulation 3, 4, 5 or 7A to make a payment to a customer or to credit a sum to his account, the undertaker shall make the payment or, as the case may be, credit the sum to the customer’s account within 10 working days of the sum becoming payable.

(2) Where an undertaker fails to make a payment or credit a sum in accordance with paragraph (1), the undertaker shall pay to the customer (or credit to his account) a further sum of £10 if the customer makes a written claim for a payment under this regulation within3 months of the payment or credit referred to in paragraph (1) becoming payable.”