Southern Water complaints

Woodpath

As the owner of a small community based coffee business, my business has been virtually pushed to the wall by Southern Water. In November 2024, I reported a burst water main at the site of a previous major pipe refurbishment in Portsmouth. The extensive repairs lasted some 4 months and  were being undertaken by Southern Water contractor's Cappagh Brown I repeatedly requested meetings with the site contractors and Southern Water representatives, none were forthcoming  The problem was directly adjacent to my coffee business. Trade plummeted,so much so that I am considering folding the business. I initiated contact by email, 4 weeks after the burst with Southern Water, and to date (July 2025) I have received not one response or acknowledgement. The situation has been very stressful and has been partly responsible for hospitalising me with a stress induced stroke. I even enlisted the assistance of my local MP and Southern Water has ignored his too. I have asked for moderate compensation for loss of trade,.. there has been a DEAFENING silence from the behemoth, Southern Water...
Has anyone else  experienced such crass indifference from Southern Water that purports to serve the community needs?
I would welcome any advice on a possible course of action?

Aylesbury_Duck

As a business it's going to be up to you to engage legal support, I'm afraid.  You don't have consumer rights in this situation.  Do you have legal cover as part of your business insurance?

Grumpy_chap

Woodpath said:

As the owner of a small community based coffee business, my business has been virtually pushed to the wall by Southern Water. In November 2024, I reported a burst water main at the site of a previous major pipe refurbishment in Portsmouth. The extensive repairs lasted some 4 months and  were being undertaken by Southern Water contractor's Cappagh Brown I repeatedly requested meetings with the site contractors and Southern Water representatives, none were forthcoming  The problem was directly adjacent to my coffee business. Trade plummeted,so much so that I am considering folding the business. I initiated contact by email, 4 weeks after the burst with Southern Water, and to date (July 2025) I have received not one response or acknowledgement. The situation has been very stressful and has been partly responsible for hospitalising me with a stress induced stroke. I even enlisted the assistance of my local MP and Southern Water has ignored his too. I have asked for moderate compensation for loss of trade,.. there has been a DEAFENING silence from the behemoth, Southern Water...
Has anyone else  experienced such crass indifference from Southern Water that purports to serve the community needs?
I would welcome any advice on a possible course of action?

Sorry to hear about your health issues and I hope you make a good recovery.

Firstly, are you certain that the burst water main is down to Southern Water?
For large parts of Portsmouth, the water supply is Portsmouth Water and Southern Water only responsible for Waste Water.
Both Southern Water and Portsmouth Water use Cappagh Brown as a sub-contractor so it is possible that the site team had the incorrect signage on display or simply did not know who the Client (Water Company) was that instructed the work.
If you have contacted the incorrect company, they will not resolve the complaint, but should have sign-posted you to the appropriate business.

Secondly, for a loss of trade claim, Southern Water (or Portsmouth Water for that matter) will require to see business accounts before (typically two years), during and after the period of the disruption that you are claiming for.  The detail will need to be sufficient to show sales by week or month so that the period of the disruption can be compared with the same period in the two previous equivalent periods.

When you say you have had no response at all from Southern Water, is that absolutely no response at all?  That is actually very unusual for Southern Water.  Is it possible that the message was never received by Southern Water?  Where did you find the email address that you used for initial contact?
Again, with regard to the MP, have they actually contacted Southern Water?  Most MPs in Southern Water's zone will have a dedicated Case Manager who is the MPs single point of contact.  Of course, there could be a new MP who has not yet built that relationship.

Woodpath

Thanks for the information... it was definitely Southern Water, as supported by the ironic posters from Southern Water saying 'thank you for your understanding"deisplayed on the site.
I had sent about 20 emails, including to the streeworksclaims at Southern water and no response whatsoever had been received, which frankly i find incredible. The longstanding MP had sent a couple of letters too, my understanding is that no response had been received .
it is possible that the emails had not been received, however as there was no response to the MP, I am very sceptical that they have not been received. 

DullGreyGuy

Woodpath said:

As the owner of a small community based coffee business, my business has been virtually pushed to the wall by Southern Water. In November 2024, I reported a burst water main at the site of a previous major pipe refurbishment in Portsmouth. The extensive repairs lasted some 4 months and  were being undertaken by Southern Water contractor's Cappagh Brown I repeatedly requested meetings with the site contractors and Southern Water representatives, none were forthcoming  The problem was directly adjacent to my coffee business. Trade plummeted,so much so that I am considering folding the business. I initiated contact by email, 4 weeks after the burst with Southern Water, and to date (July 2025) I have received not one response or acknowledgement. The situation has been very stressful and has been partly responsible for hospitalising me with a stress induced stroke. I even enlisted the assistance of my local MP and Southern Water has ignored his too. I have asked for moderate compensation for loss of trade,.. there has been a DEAFENING silence from the behemoth, Southern Water...
Has anyone else  experienced such crass indifference from Southern Water that purports to serve the community needs?
I would welcome any advice on a possible course of action?

So what has actually caused the loss of trade? Has your business become truly inaccessible and so closed? Just that the road is closed so there is less passing trade? Do you have no water therefore are "forced" to close?

Do you have Business Interruption insurance? Terms have been tightened since Covid as before then many insurers were advertising on the basis that with them you dont need to sustain direct damage but there are still policies that can cover premises being closed without direct damage. 

Woodpath

sadly I did not have such cover because as a small business it is very expensive, frankly I've given up on the money its the scant regard that such large companies have for the small business. My post was simply trying to establish if Southernnwater's perceived indifference had been experienced by others  

sheramber

Woodpath said:

Thanks for the information... it was definitely Southern Water, as supported by the ironic posters from Southern Water saying 'thank you for your understanding"deisplayed on the site.
I had sent about 20 emails, including to the streeworksclaims at Southern water and no response whatsoever had been received, which frankly i find incredible. The longstanding MP had sent a couple of letters too, my understanding is that no response had been received .
it is possible that the emails had not been received, however as there was no response to the MP, I am very sceptical that they have not been received. 

Follow the complaints procedure

https://www.southernwater.co.uk/contact-us/our-complaints-procedure/

Grumpy_chap

Woodpath said:

ironic posters from Southern Water saying 'thank you for your understanding"deisplayed on the site.

As I said, it is entirely possible that the signage was incorrect if the contracting team have work with both Southern Water and Portsmouth Water.

Are you within the area marked in the following map?
https://www.push.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Item-10-Appendix-2-IWMS-Portsmouth-Water-Supply-Boundary-map.pdf

If the work was definitely water in that area, it will be Portsmouth Water.
If the work was waste water, it will be Southern Water.

Woodpath

I followed the complaints procedure still no response. 
The main burst outside a pumping station with a southern water emergency telephone no the outside. this was a main that had been repaired some 9 months earlier.

Woodpath

the pumping station gets rid of waste hence the numerous tankers that ferried water away in periods of high rainfall. 

Grumpy_chap

OK, so this is waste water and, therefore, it is Southern Water that are the correct company to raise your claim to.

When you say you had no response at all, is that absolutely no response, or not the response you wished for?
How was your compliant structured and substantiated? 
Was the amount of the claim based on fact?
How much have you sought to claim?
What evidence of business loss have you provided to compare the period of the road works with the normal trading for the same period without the roadworks?

In a previous life I worked for a company where we had a road closure in place and that did solicit a complaint from one individual, who happened to own a small business at one end of the closure and lived at the other. 
That individual submitted a claim which, notionally, was calculated in a robust way and resulted in a claim for a very precise value expressed in pounds and pence. 
The entire basis for the claim was additional petrol costs for the extra distance that needed to be driven to circumnavigate the road closure.  The company in question would have paid out a reasonable and substantiated claim on that basis. 
However, the claim, despite the preciseness of the calculation was for a sum of £52k.  Hence, a rather brief respond denying the claim but an apology that there had been inconvenience and thank you for understanding.
That individual did then follow up the complaint to external pressure sources including, as it happened, the MP to whom the company simply responded with a copy of the previous correspondence with the individual and the MP accepted that was that.