My home is flooded with sewer water

Step 1: Report a Flood

Call us on our 24-hour emergency number 0330 303 0368. 

Or speak to us on live chat 

Please let us know if any nearby properties are also affected so we can help them too. We’ll send a technician out as soon as possible, during severe weather we may take a little longer to get to customers.

 

Step 2: What should I do now?

• Keep children and pets away from the flooded areas.
• If it's safe to do so, isolate all electrical circuits by turning off the supply at the circuit board or fuse box.
• Contact your insurance provider to report the damage and make a claim (keep receipts of emergency expenses). Any claims for loss or damage must be directed to your insurance provider.
• If it's safe to do so, take photos of the flooded area – these could support your insurance claim and help us to determine why the flooding has happened and whether you’re entitled to a payment under our Guaranteed Standards of Service.
• If you live in a rented property, you should contact your landlord and let them know.

 

Step 3: Fixing the problem

• We will try to be with you as soon as possible and within two hours of the incident being reported. Every flooding incident is different, and we want to ensure we prioritise the most severe and distressing incidents first.
• If you provide a mobile number, we will contact you to let you know we are on our way.
• When we arrive, we’ll quickly work to find the cause. This will involve checking nearby sewers.
• One of our team will explain everything to you, provide their details, and answer any questions that you may have.
• If needed, they will also reach out to our team of Customer Case Leads, who will then be your dedicated point of contact until the incident is fully resolved.

 

Step 4: Clean up

• We’ll offer to arrange for a specialist clean-up of the affected area, regardless of whether you have home insurance or not. We’ll just advise you to call your insurers to check they’re happy for us to undertake the work.
• We’ll aim to get the specialist clean-up team to your property within 4 hours of the incident being reported to us. In severe weather, it may take them a little longer to get to there.
• We’ll aim to complete the initial clean-up within 12 hours of being instructed. Additional time may be needed for drying out.
• The team will remove any sewage debris, clean, disinfect, decontaminate, and install dehumidifiers until the area is thoroughly dried out. This will all be done free of charge.

 

Guaranteed standards of service payment

If you experience flooding inside your property because of a failure of our systems, we’ll automatically make a payment to you of an amount equivalent to your annual wastewater charge. This will be from a minimum of £150 to a maximum of £1,000 for each incident. These payments are not compensation or an admission of liability.

What will happen:

1. We’ll write to you within 20 working days of the incident. The letter will include the following information:
• More about the payment
• What steps we have to take as a direct result of the incident
• Any investigations we need to carry out.

1. We’ll send you a cheque or credit your account within 20 working days of the flooding incident. 
2. If we’re late with the payment, you’ll get an extra £20 as a credit to your account.

Follow the link for a list of all exceptions and further information:

Guaranteed Standards of Service

 

How you can help prevent future floods

Sewers can flood during or after heavy rain if they are overwhelmed by the amount of water.

However, more that 80% of flooding incidents happen because of blockages caused by un-flushable items and a build-up of fats, oils, and grease.

You can help to prevent flooding by not flushing items such as:

• wet wipes (even those that say ‘flushable’ cause blocks so please don’t flush any)
• nappies
• sanitary towels
• cotton buds
• tampons and applicators
• condoms
• kitchen roll

Fat, oil and grease poured down plugholes can also make the situation worse, and cause blockages in your pipes. When you’ve finished cooking, collect any waste fat, oil and grease in a container, wait until its cooled down and throw it in the bin.

You can find our more about how to keep your pipes clear.