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RD 13/00

TO REGULATORY DIRECTORS OF ALL

WATER AND SEWERAGE COMPANIES AND

WATER ONLY COMPANIES

27 April 2000

Dear Regulatory Director

REPORTING OF WATER DISCONNECTIONS 1999-2000 AND RELATED MATTERS

Prior to the implementation of the Water Industry Act 1999 Ofwat collected information at six monthly intervals concerning the number and length of domestic and commercial disconnections, and other related matters such as summonses and judgements.

Although the Water Industry Act 1999 prohibited the disconnection of domestic premises for the non-payment of charges, some mixed use premises and commercial properties may still be disconnected, and we propose to continue to collect more limited information regarding such disconnections on an annual basis. This letter informs you of the need to report disconnection figures for the year 1999-2000 by 19^th May. It also advises of other information Ofwat wishes to collect and provides a pro-forma for you to complete for the purposes of this return.

1. Disconnection Figures:
Ofwat proposes to continue to collect disconnection figures for non-domestic (including mixed-use) premises. The figures for the industry will, as in previous years, be published by Ofwat after all of the information has been received. If, in your view the numbers reported are notably different from the historic range, I would be grateful for a short explanation.
2. Long-term Domestic Disconnections:

3 Pre-Summons notices, County Court Claims and Judgements

Although domestic disconnection is no longer permitted, we remain interested in the numbers of summonses/county court claims and judgements which have been issued. This information will be used by Ofwat and the CSCs to monitor the underlying trends in the number of debt recovery actions. If you are using a debt recovery agent to collect arrears, letters sent to the customer by the recovery agent may inform the customer of the water company's intention to take legal proceedings against the customer. The proforma now has sections for pre-Summons notices issued by your company and pre-Summons notices issued by a debt recovery agent working on your company's behalf. We would like company and agent pre-Summons notices to be reported separately where possible. If data cannot be disaggregated in this way please explain the basis of the figures you report.

Questions 10 to 15 should contain all pre-Summons notices and Summonses/county court claims issued, and Judgements obtained in relation to domestic customers in the charging year (i.e. 1 April 1999 to 31 March 2000). Questions on these issues for domestic customers who receive sewerage services only are again included.

4. Budget Payment Units
The disconnection of water supplies through budget payment units was declared illegal by Mr Justice Harrison's Judgement in 1998. Companies should by now have completed their decommissioning programmes. Please make a note of any units which have remained in commission due to the company being unable to gain entry to remove them. We would also be interested to know the extent to which BPUs remain in place for the purposes of budgeting only (i.e. with the valve decommissioned) and how payment patterns have developed.
5. Solicitors' Fees
The reporting requirements for debt recovery costs have been amended to remove the costs associated with disconnection.
6. Responses

Please complete all of the boxes. If a line definition is not applicable to your company please enter "N/A" in the box. If the number is zero please enter "0" in the box.

Please complete the attached two page proforma and return it to Lynne Currie at Ofwat Consumer Affairs Division by Friday 19 May 2000, sending a copy to your CSC. As some companies have had difficulty with the proforma in past years a brief explanatory note is attached.

If you have any queries arising from this letter please contact Lynne Currie on 0121-625-1302.

Yours sincerely

Sue Cox
Head of Service and Performance Team

Encs

Debt and Disconnection proforma – Disconnection figures and related information 1 April 1999 to 31 March 2000

Explanatory Note

The following notes apply for each column – domestic properties and non-domestic properties and each column should be considered separately.

• Line one should be the total of lines 2 and 3
• Line 4 – properties disconnected for non-payment which appear empty/unoccupied at the time of disconnection – these should be included in the properties detailed on lines 1, 2 & 3.
• Line 5 – number of properties remaining disconnected at the start of period. The number on this line should be the same as the number reported in line 13 of your last disconnection return (i.e. the return for the period October 1998 to March 1999).
• Line 7 refers only to domestic disconnections. No further domestics disconnections should have been made after 30 June 1999.
• Line 9 – the total number of properties remaining disconnected at the end of the reporting period. Use the following formula to ensure that the figures have been correctly entered and calculated:

If the figures above do not conform to the above criteria for any reason (e.g. you are aware that the property has become void since it was disconnected) then an explanatory note should be provided.

ANNEX 1	Company:
Completed by:
Telephone number:		Date:

No.	Definition	Domestic Properties	Non-domestic properties (including mixed use premises)
1	Total number of disconnections for non-payment of a water bill 1 April 1999 - 30 June 1999 (domestic) and 1 April 1999 – 31 March 2000 (non-domestic)
2	Number of unmeasured disconnections
3	Number of measured disconnections
4	Number of properties that were empty/unoccupied when disconnected (please provide your definition of empty/unoccupied if it has changed since last provided). [see * below]
5	Number of properties remaining disconnected at the start of the period (i.e. disconnected in previous reporting periods and not reconnected at the start of this reporting period).
6	Number of disconnected properties reconnected within 24 hours.
7	Total number of domestic properties remaining disconnected at 1 July 1999
8	Total number of properties reconnected within the reporting period.
9	Total number of disconnections made during this reporting period and previous reporting periods that have not been reconnected at 31 March 2000

* properties disconnected for non-payment which appear to be empty/unoccupied at the time – these will also be counted in questions 1, 2 & 3.

ANNEX 2	Company:
Completed by:
Telephone number:		Date:

Other Debt Related Matters
Water Bills
10	Total number of pre-summons notices (or letters warning of possible court action) issued for non-payment of 'water only' bills and 'water and sewerage' bills 1999-00.	a. By Company:
		By Agent:
		Total:
11	Total number of summonses/county court claims issued for non-payment of 'water only' bills and 'water and sewerage' bills 1999-00.
12	Total number of Judgements obtained for non-payment of 'water only' bills and 'water and sewerage' bills 1999-00.
Sewerage Only Bills
13	Total number of pre-summons notices (or letters warning of possible court action) issued for non-payment of 'sewerage only' bills 1999-00	a. By Company:
		By Agent:
		Total:
14	Total number of summonses/county court claims issued for non-payment of 'sewerage only' bills 1999-00.
15	Total number of Judgements obtained for non-payment of 'sewerage only' bills 1999-00.
Additional Costs (1999-00)
16	Solicitors fees charged for issuing a County Court Summons or claim in 1999-00 for a debt of:	£100	£
		£200	£
		£300 or more	£