What happens if I don't pay?

It is important that you pay your bill in accordance with the payment method you have chosen. If you don't and you fall behind on your payments we will take steps to recover the amount owing.

We go through a formal procedure that has several stages. The later stages are administratively costly to us and these costs are added to your bill, so it is important that customers in arrears settle the amount owing as quickly as possible.

First we will issue a reminder notice. We hope that at this point those customers who are in genuine financial difficulty will contact us, explain the problem and agree with us how the outstanding amount will be paid. If this is the case for you, then contact us.

The reminder notice contains a warning that we will begin our debt recovery procedure if payment is not made, or an arrangement made with us.

If no money is paid, a pre-claim letter is issued. This warns that if the outstanding amount is not paid, legal action will be taken. Furthermore, one of our representatives may visit your home to discuss payment.

If we still do not receive payment we will send a claim to the County Court. The customer has the option to either admit or defend the claim. If the customer admits the debt, the Court is asked to enter judgment by admission.

If legal action is taken we will seek to recover the full amount outstanding which, for unmetered charges, is the remainder of the annual charges. In addition we will recover the charges we have incurred for County Court fees, judgment fees and solicitors fees.

If the claim is defended and the query cannot be resolved by correspondence a hearing may be set by the Court, which will act as arbitrator in the case. If the customer ignores the claim, the Court is requested to enter judgment by default.

If the customer does not meet the terms of the County Court judgment order we will request enforcement in accordance with County Court rules.

At each stage in the process we will encourage customers to enter into an appropriate payment arrangement to suit the customer's individual circumstances.

You can find out more information on our code of practice for the collection of debt by downloading our managing debt leaflet.