No water am I entitled to compensation help?

sabina1986

Hi I live in a area just outside Blackpool and as some of you may know we had no water all day yesterday and although water has returned today it is extremley low pressure with just a trickle coming from the tap.
We went out last night in the hope of finding some water for my elderly grandparents and myself, but the broswers we visited were empty.
Due to the panic buying across the Blackpool area we were unable to find bottled water in any of the 6 supermarkets or local shops we visited. In the end we went to Makro in Preston about 10 miles away and bought enough bottled water to see us through in case they disconnect us again.
We have since been told by the local paper that it could take another 48-72 hours for the water to return properly.
However there has also been much talk of United Utillites having to compensate us £25 for loss of water.
Can anyone tell me is this correct and if so how do I make a claim?
Up to now united utillites have been of no use I rang them and they said they would call me back in 2 hours that was yesterday I'm still waiting, they still havent fully diagnosed the problem and I am very annoyed at the lack of information they are giving out!

cornerstone13

I used to work in the water industry and probably everything has changed since then !! We had to pay compensation if water was off for more than 17 (!) hours and it was £10 for every 24 hour period - dependant on the cause (ie the water company's fault or not). Unfortunately, water companies often don't seem to be very good at communications in this type of situation.

You could try looking on United Utilities website to see if they have info for people in your situation, or OFWAT (the water regulator). OFWAT will probably also have other useful links to try.

Have any of your neighbours had any luck

whatatwit

Hi Sabina....I've been affected too.
If you have a look at the question I posted about compensation, deano posted the link to the UU website bit about their promises to us....ignore the snipey comments by a couple of the posters.

sillyvixen

i live in glos and was without water for 2 weeks during the summer due to the flooding of mythe treatment works.. there was a lot of talk at the time of compensation due.. and at the begining it was even suggested in the news by a severn trent spokesman, but severn trent wormed their way out of it in the end and changed their garenteed standards before the crisis was resolved. dont hold your breath for compo!! water boards have got you over a barrel as you cant pick and choose your service provider like you can with other utillities, if you could severn trent would have no custom and their share holders would be upset.
cant upset the shareholders by loosing some of the huge profits by paying compo to customers that have suffered major disruption well not if they cant vote with their feet:mad: