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Sewer flooding

Northumbrian Water's Freephone Floodline - 0800 328 7648

Even with emergency overflows there are occasions when problems in the sewerage network, or torrential rainfall, cause flooding.

If you do experience flooding please contact us on the above freephone floodline number. Your call with be answered by an experienced Customer Advisor who will be able to offer advice and ensure that you receive any necessary assistance.

We take all reports of flooding seriously and have a set process for dealing with reported flooding problems. Part of this process is to try and fully understand the extent of flooding by visiting site and completing a flooding assessment. In addition to this it may also be necessary to carry out on site investigations, including Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) surveys. Once this has taken place, actions will be taken to resolve any obvious problems. If there are no obvious defects, we will consider any further investigations which may be necessary.
If you are unfortunate enough to suffer internal sewer flooding you will receive a call back within five working days from a member of our Sewer Flooding Team who will outline our sewer flooding process in detail and address any concern you may have. This experienced Sewer Flooding Customer Advisor will become your designated point of contact and will remain in touch with you throughout the investigation process, keeping you informed of developments until the flooding problem has been resolved.

Northumbrian Water is generally not liable for sewage flooding. It is therefore important that you contact your household insurance company straight away to seek advice regarding any loss or damage you may have sustained as a result of flooding.

Sewage flooding is covered under our guaranteed standards of service. In the event of flooding you may be entitled to a payment under our Customer Assurance Scheme. If you experience flooding on or after 1 October 2007 the payment to which you may be entitled has increased. Please contact our Customer Contact Centre on 0845 717 1100 for further information. If any payment is due this will be sent upon completion of our investigations.

Following a flooding event, we will help you to clean up. We will carry out investigations in accordance with our flooding process to help us to establish the cause of the flooding. We will keep you informed of any progress or findings we make.

For more information on sewage flooding and our customer assurance scheme please download our 'Guidance in the event of sewage flooding' and 'Our promise' leaflets.