Section 51A: Agreements to adopt water main or service pipe at future date, Water Industry Act 1991

Subject to subsections (2) and (10) below, a water undertaker may agree with any person constructing or proposing to construct—

any water main; or

any service pipe,

that, if the water main or service pipe is constructed in accordance with the terms of the agreement, the undertaker will, upon completion of the work, at some specified date or on the happening of some future event, declare the water main or (as the case may be) so much of the service pipe as the undertaker could otherwise, by virtue of sections 45 to 51 above, be required to lay, to be vested in that undertaker.

Subsection (1) above shall not apply in the case of water mains or service pipes which are to be used (in whole or in part) for the purpose of supplying water other than for domestic purposes, but—

nothing in this section shall prevent a water undertaker from agreeing apart from this section to declare any such water main or service pipe (or a part of it, as specified in the agreement) to be vested in the undertaker; and

such a declaration shall take effect as a declaration made under this Chapter.

A person constructing or proposing to construct a water main or a service pipe to which subsection (1) above applies may request a water undertaker to make an agreement under this section.

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An agreement made under this section by a water undertaker shall be enforceable against the undertaker by the owner or occupier for the time being of any premises connected or to be connected with the water main or service pipe to which it relates.

The reference in subsection (9) to an agreement made under this section includes a reference to—

an order under section 51B which is deemed to be an agreement by virtue of section 51B(5), and

an agreement which has been varied by order under section 51C(1).

A water undertaker shall not make an agreement under this section with respect to a water main or a service pipe situated within the area of another water undertaker, until either—

that other undertaker has consented in writing to the making of the agreement; or

the Secretary of State, on an application made to him, has dispensed with the necessity for such consent, either unconditionally or subject to such conditions as he may think fit to impose.

Section 51A: Agreements to adopt water main or service pipe at future date

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