Regulation 4 Account queries and requests about payment arrangements

Changes not yet applied. Later legislation changes this provision in ways not yet written into the text below:

reg.4(1) rev in pt by Water Supply and Sewerage Services (Customer Service Standards) 1993 reg.2, Sch, para 3(a)
reg.4(2) amended by Water Supply and Sewerage Services (Customer Service Standards) 1993 reg.2, Sch, para 3(b)
reg.4(3)(f) revoked by Water Supply and Sewerage Services (Customer Service Standards) 1993 reg.2, Sch, para 3(c)
reg.4(4) added by Water Supply and Sewerage Services (Customer Service Standards) 1993 reg.2, Sch, para 3(d)
reg.4 amended (with spec. appliedcation) by Water Supply and Sewerage Services (Customer Service Standards) 2000 regs.1 (2),2(4)

(1)

This regulation applies where a customer queries in writing the correctness of an account presented to him by a water or sewerage undertaker for the supply of water or sewerage services to domestic premises (“a query”) or where a customer asks in writing to change the arrangements by which he makes payments to the undertaker.

(2)

Where this regulation applies the undertaker shall, except in the circumstances described in paragraph (3), pay to the customer (or credit to his account) the sum of £5 if the undertaker fails–

(a)

in the case of a query, to despatch a substantive reply to the customer within 20 working days from the date of receipt of the query; or

(b)

where the customer asks to change the arrangements by which he makes payments and that request cannot be met, to despatch a substantive reply to the customer within 10 working days from the date of the receipt of the request.

(3)

The circumstances described in this paragraph are–

(a)

that the customer has informed the undertaker that he does not wish to pursue his query or request; or

(b)

in the case of a query, that severe weather conditions made it impracticable to make any necessary visit to the customer’s premises in sufficient time to enable the undertaker to comply with paragraph (2)(a); or

(c)

that industrial action by the undertaker’s employees 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 dispatch such a reply within the relevant period; or

(d)

that the query or request was not sent to an address notified in writing by the undertaker to its customers as the appropriate address for queries or requests of that nature; or

(e)

in the case of a query, that the query is frivolous or vexatious; or

(f)

that the customer has not made a written claim for a payment under this regulation within 3 months of the date of the receipt of the query or request by the undertaker.