Compensation

If we need to meet you at home, we’ll arrange a morning or afternoon appointment and will arrive within the agreed time slot. In some cases, you may be able to request an appointment within a two-hour time period. If we need to cancel or reschedule, we’ll give you at least 24 hours’ notice. 

If we don’t meet this standard, we’ll automatically credit your Thames Water account with £50 within 10 working days.

If you contact us with a question about the accuracy of your bill or account, we’ll answer your query within 10 working days from the date we receive your contact.

If you ask us to change the way you pay, for example, paying by instalments, and we’re unable to agree to the request, we’ll reply within five working days from the date we receive your contact.

If we don’t, we’ll automatically credit your Thames Water account with £40 within 10 working days.

If you write to us with a question about the water or wastewater services that we provide to your home, we’ll answer your query within 10 working days from the date we receive your letter or email.

If we don’t, we’ll automatically credit your Thames Water account with £40 within 10 working days.

If your property has a meter, we’ll make sure we read it at least once every 13 months, starting from 1 October 2025.

We'll credit your Thames Water account with £40 within 20 working days if we do not do this.   

If your meter remains unread for a further 13 months, we’ll credit your account with £80.

From 1 October 2025, if you request a water meter and we haven’t switched your account to metered billing within 50 days, you may be eligible for a payment.

The payment will be equal to the water charges you’ve paid from the time of your request until we switch you to metered billing. We’ll add this payment to your Thames Water account within 20 working days.

Joining our Priority Services Register

Customers who need some extra help can join our Priority Services Register (PSR). Once we receive your request, we’ll confirm your registration within 30 days.

Once you join the scheme, we can help you with:

• Deliveries of bottled water during a supply interruption due to an incident
• Receiving communication in alternative formats
• Choosing someone to manage your account on your behalf

If we don’t confirm your registration for these services within 30 days, you're entitled to a payment of £100.

We'll make this payment automatically to your Thames Water account within 20 working days.

Bottled water deliveries

If the water supply is interrupted due to an incident for more than 12 hours, we'll provide bottled water to eligible Priority Services customers. We aim to deliver water within 24 hours of being aware of an incident. We'll prioritise customers who are:

• Medically dependant on water
• On dialysis, feeding pump and automated medication
• Living with a chronic/serious illness
• On oxygen concentrator
• Using a nebuliser and apnoea monitor
• Living with heart or lung illness or ventilator
• Using a stairlift, hoist, electric bed
• Unable to answer the door
• Mobility impaired
• Living with dementia/cognitive impairment
• Blind
• Living with hand movement constraints
• Recovering from hospital treatment
• Aged over 90

If we fail to provide you with bottled water during an incident, you are entitled to a payment of £100. We'll make this payment automatically to your Thames Water account with us within 20 working days.

If you contact us to complain about the services we provide for you, and we haven't already given you our final response, we’ll reply within 10 working days from the date we receive your letter or email.

If we don’t, we’ll automatically credit your Thames Water account with £40 within 10 working days.

Learn more about our complaints procedure.

We’ll give you at least 48 hours’ notice if we plan to turn your water off for more than four hours. We’ll also tell you when we expect to turn your water back on.

If we don’t, we’ll automatically credit your Thames Water account with £50 in 20 working days.

If the water supply turns off unexpectedly, such as following a burst water main, we’ll always aim to have the supply restored within 12 hours of being aware of the issue. If we've let you know that we need to turn your water off to do planned work, we'll turn it back on by the time we said in our notice.

If we don’t, we’ll automatically credit your Thames Water account with £50. If there are additional delays then we’ll pay an extra £50 for each further complete 12-hour period that the water interruption continues. 

We’ll automatically credit your Thames Water account within 20 working days.

How we calculate the duration of a supply interruption

We calculate how long a water supply interruption lasts using data from pressure monitors and the height of each property. 

We base our calculation on modelling water pressure at the property boundary at ground level. This is where our pipe responsibility ends.

As every property has different internal pipework, it may take longer for water pressure to build up than our calculations show.

For roads or areas on a slope or hill, neighbouring properties are likely to have experienced different interruptions. So, they may be entitled to different CGS payment amounts.

At the point where our pipe responsibility ends, we aim to provide a minimum pressure of ten metres static head in the pipework serving your property.

If your pressure dropped lower than seven metres static head for at least one hour on two separate occasions within a 28-day period, we’ll pay you £50.

If we’re aware you’ve been affected by low pressure, we’ll make these payments automatically within 20 working days. If we're unaware that you're having problems with low pressure, you'll need to make a claim within three months of it happening.

Payment for loss of pressure is payable up to a maximum of five times between 1 April and 31 March. If your loss of pressure relates to essential work on our pipes, such as a burst main or a drought, we may not be able to pay you. We’ll look at your case and let you know as soon as we can.

If there’s a problem with the quality of the tap water that we supply to you, we’ll do everything we can to fix it as quickly as possible. We’ll also put a ‘restriction of use’ notice through your door if you need to stop using your water temporarily.

If we issue a 'restriction of use' notice, and it's confirmed that the problem was within our water supply pipework, we’ll automatically credit your Thames Water account with £40 within 20 working days.

If the ‘restriction of use’ notice is not lifted within 48 hours, we’ll pay you an extra £20 for every full 24 hours it stays in place. The most we’ll pay is the total water charges for your property for the year.

In the home

Flooding inside your property is especially distressing. Each time we’re aware of sewage entering your home from one of our sewers, we’ll pay you the cost of your wastewater charges for that year (subject to a minimum of £300 and a maximum of £2,000). We may pay you more for repeat flooding events within a 12-month rolling period. The minimum amount may increase by £100 and maximum by £500, per repeat event.

If we visited you after you reported the flood, we'll automatically credit your Thames Water account or send you a cheque, within 20 working days. If we weren't notified of the flood at the time, you'll need to make a claim within three months. You must provide details of any losses or damages, including photos, so we can assess the claim.

Outside of the home

If you suffered from severe sewer flooding outside your home (within your property boundary), from one of our sewers, you may be able to claim back half the cost of your wastewater charges for that year (subject to a minimum of £150 and a maximum of £1,000). If this is not the first time that your land has been flooded within the last 12 months, then the minimum amount may increase by £50 and maximum by £250, per repeat event.

You'll need to make a claim within three months of the flood, and provide details of any losses or damages, including photos, so that we can assess the severity of the flooding and determine if you were materially affected. If eligible, we'll credit your account, or send you a cheque, within 20 days.  

Further information

See Section 7 of our Customer Guarantee Scheme.

If your water supply is restricted by an emergency drought order covering:

• Cooking
• Washing
• Drinking
• Flushing the toilet

We’ll automatically compensate you with £10 for each day you’re affected. We’ll pay this within 20 working days.

We will only make this payment if we have not taken all reasonable steps to avoid the drought order.

This does not include restrictions on watering the garden, car washing or filling a pool.