We want to help How to pay As a Bristol Water business customer, you are entitled to a high level of service from us and our joint billing company, Bristol Wessex Billing Services Limited (BWBSL). In return, we ask you for prompt payment metered bills are due for immediate payment and unmetered bills are due on 1st April. We offer a variety of ways in which you can pay your bill: We know that for some business customers finding the money to pay can sometimes be difficult. This code of practice explains how we can help in these circumstances and what will happen if you cannot or do not pay on time. If you have a problem paying If your company is finding it difficult to pay or your payment is going to be late, please contact us as soon as possible. We cannot reduce your bill, or offer extended credit facilities, but we have a number of different payment options to help spread the cost. If you currently pay an unmetered charge, you may wish to consider having a meter fitted. There is a fitting cost but for businesses with low water use it can save you money. For a leaflet please call our 24 hour recorded meter leaflet line on 0845 601 5 983 and leave your name and address. If you already have a water meter fitted there are ways you can save water and so save money. For information please call 0117 953 6470 between 9am and 4pm Monday to Friday. ■ direct debit - unmetered customers can pay annually, twice yearly, or in 10 monthly payments. Metered customers can pay monthly on a budget plan or on demand ■ Paypoint – take your bill and payment in cash to a local Paypoint outlet – see www.paypoint.co.uk ■ at your bank - please take the bill or payment slip with either cash, cheque or crossed postal order made payable to BWBSL. Normally no fee is payable at your own bank ■ at a post office - please fill in the payment slip and take the complete bill, with your payment in cash, to any post office. ■ by credit or debit card – pay by using our automated speech recognition line 0845 600 1 019*, or by ringing 0845 600 3600 between 8am and 6pm Monday to Friday; Saturday 9am and 1pm. ■ by post - please write your customer reference number on the back of your cheque and send it with the payment slip to BWBSL, 1 Clevedon Walk, Nailsea, Bristol BS48 1WW. You should not send cash through the post. If you must, please use registered post. Please do not send post-dated cheques as we cannot accept liability if we present them early. Please make all cheques or postal orders payable to BWBSL. * payment should be made to Bristol Wessex Billing Services Limited quoting the 13 digit reference number shown in the box on the payment slip. 4 2 5 3 How to pay continued Failure to pay ■ BACS (please contact us for account If you do not let us know that your company is experiencing difficulties we cannot help you, and we will take action to recover any money you owe us. details) ■ CHAPS or telegraphic transfer ■ on-line - you can pay on-line with a debit or credit card at: www.billpayment.co.uk * ■ telephone, TV, PC or remote banking please quote sort code 40-02-50 and account number 61229737*. *payment should be made to Bristol Wessex Billing Services Limited quoting the 13 digit reference number shown in the box on the payment slip. We do not usually accept payment by instalment, but we may be prepared to make an arrangement to help you clear your debt. If you would like further details on any of the above payment options, please call 0845 600 3 600 between 8am and 6pm Monday to Friday; Saturday 9am and 1pm. What if you dispute the bill? If you do not think you are liable for the bill or you dispute the amount, please let us know as soon as possible. We can then resolve the situation. In the case of a disputed bill you must pay any amount not in dispute immediately while we investigate. If you fail to pay we are empowered under the Water Industry Act 1991 to cut off the water supplied to your business. Where necessary we may issue a notice under section 64 of the Water Industry Act 1991 telling you to separate a shared supply from that of your neighbour. You will have to do this at your own cost or we may carry out this work and add it to your bill. If we need to gain access to your premises, we can apply to a magistrate for a warrant of entry. If you tell us that you are the new occupier of a property where water charges are unpaid, we will expect you to provide evidence of the change of occupation date. Only the following premises are exempt from disconnection under the Water Industry Act Amendment 1999: ■ domestic properties ■ schools or places of further education ■ hospitals and clinics ■ residential care or nursing homes ■ children’s homes ■ prisons or detention centres ■ police, fire and ambulance stations ■ public buildings. 4 5 Debt Recovery Process If you do not pay on time, we will either send you a written reminder or telephone you. ■ will carry out regular checks to verify that the water remains off ■ will inform the RSPCA if we believe any animals will be affected and the NFU if it is a farm If after that you still do not pay or contact us, we reserve the right to add statutory interest and collection and administration charges to the debt. We may then: ■ will request advance payment from you in ■ disconnect your water supply, and/or ■ begin legal proceedings. If we decide not to cut off your water supply Please note timings can vary according to individual circumstances particularly your payment record. If you have a poor payment history, we may shorten the recovery process. If you have tampered with the control we will carry out a permanent disconnection and recover the cost from you. What will happen if your supply is cut off? If your supply is cut off we: ■ will inform your local Environmental Health Department. ■ will not accept responsibility for any loss of business or damage to equipment or property that may occur as a result of the supply being cut off ■ will not restore the supply until you have paid your debt and a reconnection fee in full ■ will not guarantee to restore your supply immediately ■ will accept payment in cash, cheque that has been cleared by TRANSAX or credit/debit card future. If we decide not to cut off your water supply or you do not pay the debt after the supply has been cut off, we will issue a county court claim against you. A county court claim involves initial court costs of at least £73 which you will have to pay in addition to your bill. If you do not then pay immediately and in full, the court could issue a county court judgment (CCJ) against you and in our favour. Your business will then stay on the county court register for six years or until you have paid the debt and all court fees and legal costs. This could seriously affect any applications made for credit with other suppliers of goods and services. If the debt, fees and costs are still not paid we will ask the county court to enforce the judgment. If we have to do this it will add to our legal charges and incur additional court fees both of which you will have to pay. ■ will not accept any offer to pay by direct debit at this stage 6 7 How will enforcement action affect you? Once judgment has been entered against you, we can ask the county court to issue any of the following proceedings: ■ warrant of execution - a bailiff enters your business premises and seizes goods to sell at auction to raise the money to pay your debt and any additional costs incurred ■ personal appearance at court - you are instructed to attend court in person and complete a statement about your financial affairs in front of a judge. The court fees for serving and carrying out this action, and for our legal fees, will be added to your debt ■ charging order - if you own your premises, we may ask the judge to make an order which prevents you selling it without paying the debt. If you have a mortgage this will involve the lender being aware of the details of your debt and of the county court judgment against you ■ third party debt order - we ask the judge to Collection agencies Unless you have already broken a previous payment agreement, we will allow you to make an acceptable offer of payment at any time during our recovery process. In certain circumstances, we may refer your debt to a collection agency. Debt collection agents work on our behalf to recover monies due. We may ask them to do this at any time in the debt recovery process. To safeguard customers we ensure the agents we use are registered with the Office of Fair Trading, are members of the Credit Service Association and so subject to their code of practice. In the unlikely event that a debt is pursued in this way in error or our debt collection agent acts improperly we will compensate you under our customer guarantee scheme. If you do have a complaint about a collection agent you should telephone us immediately on 0845 600 3 600 between 8am and 6pm Monday to Friday; Saturday, 9am to 1pm. make an order to freeze your bank account and instruct the bank to transfer funds directly to us to clear the debt ■ bankruptcy - we ask the court to declare you bankrupt ■ winding up order - we ask the court to liquidate/dissolve your company. 8 9 Advice This code of practice forms part of a suite of Code leaflets available to customers. This leaflet is available on request in other formats. If you have any questions about this code of practice or you require further information please telephone customer services on 0845 600 3 600 Our staff can be contacted between 8am and 6pm, Monday to Friday; Saturday 9am to 1pm. Ofwat - the industry regulator Ofwat regulates the water industry in England and Wales. The customer representative is the Consumer Council for Water. This independent committee aims to protect customers’ interests and investigate customer complaints and is free to customers. The local office is: Consumer Council for Water 2 The Hide Market West Street St Philips Bristol BS2 0BH You can write to us at: Tel: 0845 707 8268 BWBSL 1 Clevedon Walk Nailsea Bristol BS48 1WW Or e-mail us on customer.services@bwbsl.co.uk Fax: 0117 955 7037 E-mail: wessex@ccwater.org.uk Office hours: 8.30am to 4.30pm Monday to Friday Or visit our website: www.bristolwater.co.uk 10 11 Debt recovery code of practice for business customers CA/CopBusDebt/2k/2.06