The Water Industry Act 1999 banned water suppliers from
diconnecting water supplies from consumers, even if they were
failing to pay their bills. This has led to a growing problem
of unpaid water bills that far outstrips the outstanding debts owed
for other types of utility. According to industry figures, in 2007
19% of domestic water customers were in arrears with their water
bill as compared to 5% of electricity customers and 3.7% of gas
customers. It is believed that tenants represent a significant
number of these overdue bills and the water companies complain that
the lack of information about their future whereabouts makes it is
very difficult to pursue those debts.
All this may be about to change however. Section
45 of the Flood & Water Management Act 2010 contains
provisions which require landlords to give information about their
tenants to the relevant water company. A failure to do so will
leave the landlord jointly and severally liable for the water bill
alongside the tenants.
At the moment the section has been brought into force (in
October 2010) but only for the purpose of making secondary
legislation to set out how it will work in practice. It is believed
that this will include the setting up of websites by the various
water companies to make the provision of the necessary information
as simple as possible. There is scope for landlords to be exempt
from liability for the provision of false or incomplete data
provided that they have taken such reasonable steps as are
specified in the regulations to ensure that the data is accurate.
The secondary legislation will probably be in force from October
2011 and the obligation will therefore come into effect from that
date.
The section contains an exemption which means that no liability
will fall on an agent or trustee due to their position. The
responsibility is solely that of the principal. However,
agents will need to be aware of the changes and should consider how
best to adjust their procedures and documents to assist their
clients in dealing with the new obligations. Consideration
should be given as to what information is likely to be required
(full names, previous and forwarding addresses are the most
probable candidates) and how this can be collected and verified for
accuracy.