If we have to make an appointment to visit you, we will make a morning or afternoon appointment (before or after 12pm) on a specific day, Monday to Friday. If requested, we can make an appointment for a 2 hour period. If we cannot keep the appointment we will let you know at least 24 hours in advance either in writing or by telephone.

If we do not meet this commitment, a compensation amount of £40 will be automatically applied to your account.  

If we do not keep to the appointment that has been made, or we cancel the appointment with less than 24 hours’ notice, a compensation amount of £50 will be automatically applied to your account.  

In some scenarios a payment will not be made, for example: 

• If you cancel the appointment 
• If we cancel the appointment giving at least 24 hours’ notice 
• If we are not able to keep the appointment due to severe weather 
• If we are not able to keep the appointment due to industrial action by the company’s employees 
• If we are not able to keep appointment due to an act or default of a person other than the company’s representative. 

If your supply needs to be turned off for planned maintenance or other necessary work, we will give you reasonable notice of the date and time that we expect the water supply to be turned off and restored. 

If the water supply is going to be turned off for more that 4 hours, we will provide you with this notice at least 48 hours in advance of the supply interruption.  

If we fail to provide you with reasonable notice of a planned interruption to your supply, a compensation payment of £50 will be automatically applied to your account.  

As part of our programme for checking leaks we sometimes turn off sections of mains pipe at night in a programmed way to identify the sections leaking. We usually do this between midnight and 5 o’clock in the morning. 

These interruptions usually last less than half an hour. If this is likely to cause you a specific problem, please contact us on [email protected] or 023 9249 9666. Because the disruption is slight we won’t tell you in advance nor do we regard this as a failure to meet standards.

For planned interruptions, if we fail to restore the supply by the period detailed in our notice, a compensation payment of £50 will be automatically applied to your account.  

For emergencies, where the water supply is interrupted for more than 12 hours, a compensation payment of £50 will be automatically applied to your account.

Further compensation payments of £50 will be automatically applied to your account for every 12 hour period you remain impacted by a supply interruption. Compensation payments are limited to a maximum of a customer’s annual water supply charge.

We aim to maintain a minimum pressure of water in a communication pipe at 10 metres static head. In the event of pressure falling below 7 metres on two occasions, for more than one hour, within a 28 day period, a compensation payment of £50 will normally be automatically be applied to your account.  

However, sometimes it may not be possible for us to identify impacted customers. In this situation you can make a claim within 3 months of last low pressure event. 

If you feel you have a problem with your pressure please contact our Head Office. We will investigate the matter free of charge and report back to you.

If you write to us with a query about the correctness of your account we will answer the query within 10 working days of receiving your request. 

If you write to ask us to change the way you pay your bill, and we find we cannot make the change, we will let you know within 5 working days of receiving your request. 

If we do not meet these commitments, a compensation amount of £40 will be automatically applied to your account.  

We offer customers an online customer portal where you can view your bills, balance, make a payment and update any specific needs. You can do this by clicking “Register/Log in to your online account” at the top of this page, or visit myaccount.portsmouthwater.co.uk

Our Priority Services Register (PSR) lets us know about additional support you may need with billing or in an incident. You will also be added to our Core Priority Services Register if you have told us you: 

• require constant access to water 
• need us to provide bills in an alternative format such as large print or braille 
• have a nominee in place 

When you are added to our Core Priority Services Register, we will write to you in 30 days to let you know about the support you will receive.  

If we don’t do this, or don’t deliver the service we have committed to, a compensation amount of £100 will be automatically applied to your account.

On extremely rare occasions, we may have to issue you with a water quality notice. If this happens, you may need to restrict or change how you use your water.  

If the quality of your water supply has not been restored after 48 hours of the notice being issued, a compensation payment will be made.  

If we do not meet this commitment, a compensation amount of £40 will be automatically applied to your account. If the quality of your water supply continues not to be restored, additional compensation payments of £20 will be made for each 24 hour period after the initial 48 hour period.  

There are some circumstances in which a payment will not be made for example If the water supply was polluted or contaminated by the customer or if the notice is served due to drought or immediately following a period of drought.

If you have fallen behind in making payments to us, and we plan to either register a default notice with a single or multiple Credit Reference Agencies, or commence court proceedings, we will send you an outstanding charging notice. 

This notice will provide you with all the information you need to help you understand the outstanding amount, the period to which the charges relate to and how you can contact us. Following this notice we will not progress with any default registrations or court proceedings for 30 calendar days. 

If you do not contact us or make a payment, we will send you a second outstanding charging notice giving you further opportunity to contact us and discuss or resolve the outstanding balance. 

If we do not meet this commitment, a compensation amount of £150 will be automatically applied to your account.

 

If you request for a meter to be installed at your property, we will install the water meter within 8 weeks from the date of your request. 

If we fail to install the water meter within 8 weeks, a compensation payment will be made. The amount will be for the value of the water bill you have paid between the end of the 8 week period, and the date the meter was actually installed.

 

For older, analogue meters, we usually take a meter read every 6 months for billing purposes. Sometimes we may not be able to take a meter reading and your bill may be estimated.  

From 1st October we are committing to taking at least one actual meter reading in a 13 month period. The 13 month period commences from either 1st October, if the meter was installed prior to this date, or from the meter installation date.  

If we do not meet this commitment, a compensation amount of £40 will be automatically applied to your account. If we continue to fail to take an actual meter reading, an additional compensation payment of £80 will be made for each 13 month period that an actual meter reading is not taken.  

There are some circumstances which mean we are not able to read the meter, for example, if a customer refuses to give us access to the meter, or it is obstructed. In these instances, no compensation payment is due.

We aim to respond to complaints within 5 working days but commit to providing a response within 10 working days, beginning the day after the complaint is received. 

You will be informed that we have registered your complaint, and we will provide a response either by phone, email or letter. 

If we do not meet this commitment, a compensation amount of £40 will be automatically applied to your account. Find out more about our complaints process.