Compensation for Having no water

TBagpuss

So, I woke up this morning to find we have no water, apparently there is a burst water main and our entire village is without water - it's been about 8 hours since it was reported, so far.

reading my water companies site it looks as though they had to pay compensation when the supply is interrupted for 12 hours or more - does anyone know whether they normally do this automatically by a discount on your bill of it you have to apply? (I'm not overly concerned, and am hoping that they will get it fixed before the 12 hour mark as I'd rather have water than the £20, but I am curious. Does anyone know  if there is a standard process, or does it vary by provider? Also, given that they appear to be allowed longer to fix it if the problem is with a 'strategic main pipe', does anyone know how you go about finding out whether the pipe which has burst is a strategic main? 

I am sure that the village message and facebook groups will be all over this in a while but wondered if anyone here works for a water company and knows the answers, or has been in this situation recently? 

(Of course, if it's not on by tomorrow then my entire weekends plans for a long bath and lots of laundry will be in jeopardy, and I shall be much grumpier!)

kipsterno1

It was some years ago that it happened to us but the payment was automatic. 

J63320

This happened in my area, where United Utilities are the supplier, a few weeks ago. I only experienced very low pressure but others had no water at all. The UU website had regular updates about the issue and details of where they were handing out bottled water. And when it was over I automatically got a payment into my bank account.

TBagpuss

Thanks for the updates. We had bottled water available to collect, they finally got the water back on about 11.5 hours after it was first reported as off.

casper_gutman

TBagpuss said:

...they finally got the water back on about 11.5 hours after it was first reported as off.

That certainly suggests the requirement to pay compensation after 12 hours' interruption to supply works in focusing their minds!!

TBagpuss

casper_gutman said:

TBagpuss said:

...they finally got the water back on about 11.5 hours after it was first reported as off.

That certainly suggests the requirement to pay compensation after 12 hours' interruption to supply works in focusing their minds!!

Maybe, although in fairness, I think they would have treated it as pretty high priority any way, it was a big area that was affected and they seemed to be pretty good about getting the water available for collection, delivering to vulnerable customers, and keeping people updated.

I suspect it was probably off for longer but no-one was awake and reporting it earlier in the morning! 

I feel sorry for the people living next to where the main burst, who got a lot of the water which should have been in our taps running through their house instead...