What is an unplanned incident?
An incident is an unexpected event that affects your water supply or sewerage services. It can happen for a variety of reasons such as burst pipes, equipment faults, or extreme weather conditions.
The types of problems you might experience include:
- prolonged loss of water supply or low pressure
- flooding from sewers
- periods where consumers are advised to boil or not use their water
What should I expect from my water company?
Your water company may find out about an incident through its own monitoring equipment or when a customer reports a problem.
Once aware of the problem, it should act quickly to investigate the cause and take steps to restore services. If this is likely to take some time, it should do what it can to support and meet your needs until the service is restored. If your property has been impacted by sewer flooding the water company should arrange to undertake clean up work.
Keeping you updated during an incident
Once they know about a problem, your water company should tell you about this promptly. They should provide clear information about what this means for you, what it is doing to resolve the situation and how long it expects this to take. Where appropriate, they should also tell you about any support available and any actions that you need to take.
Depending on the incident and the contact details your company has for you, they may communicate with you in one or more of the following ways:
- SMS text messages
- phone calls
- emails
- information on its website
- hand delivered leaflets or cards
- local media
- social media (follow them for updates)
Your water company should provide you with regular updates during the incident and tell you how to contact it if further help and advice.
If water company staff visit you, they should be able to show you an identity card and use a password if one has agreed with you. If you want to double check their identity, ask them to wait outside and phone your water company using the number on your water bill or from the contact details on their website. Their staff won’t mind waiting whilst you check.
All water companies publish information on their websites detailing how they respond to incidents. This should include how they will communicate, how you can contact them, how to recognise their staff members, and what compensation may be available.
Support if you need extra help
All water companies have a Priority Services Register (PSR) where they hold details of people who might need extra help due to their circumstances, such as the delivery of bottled water or communication methods that meet your needs.
If you have registered for extra help, your water company should support you in the ways it has agreed during an incident.
If an incident occurs and you have not already told your water company about your additional needs, you should get in touch at that stage. The company should do its best to provide support, although this may not happen as quickly as if you were already registered for help.
Compensation
Following an incident, your water company must consider whether compensation should be paid to you. This might be in line with their own compensation scheme or specific to an incident.
The Guaranteed Standards Scheme sets out the minimum payments which companies should make for certain service failures. The standards cover a range of services including:
- low water pressure
- supply interruptions
- flooding from sewers
- water quality incidents (England only)
- failure to provide service promised under the Priority Services Register (England only)
Some standards apply in England but not in Wales, and minimum payment levels are different in England and in Wales.
How to prepare for an incident
It can be useful to keep some bottled water at home. Consider what you might need if your supply is interrupted, including drinking, cooking and hygiene.
You might also need extra water for any medical needs or pets.
Be sure to take account of any product information on storage and shelf life.
If you don’t have one already, consider installing a water butt. In the event of a water supply interruption, you can use the water it stores to flush your toilet.
The following items can be useful in the event of water services being disrupted:
- hand sanitiser
- baby or biodegradable wet wipes (these should only ever be disposed of in a bin, never in the toilet)
- waterless soap
- dry shampoo
- disposable plates, cups and cutlery
If you are likely to need any additional help during an incident, such as due to limited mobility or communication needs, make sure you have informed your water company so it can add you to its Priority Services Register (PSR) and provide appropriate support during an incident.
Find out how to prepare for different types of emergencies, such as flooding, fires and power cuts, on GOV.UK’s website.
