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Section 63: General duties of undertakers with respect to disconnections.

Water Industry Act 1991 · 1991 c. 56View on legislation.gov.uk

Part III: WATER SUPPLY — chapter II: SUPPLY DUTIES

Where a water undertaker—

disconnects a service pipe to any inhabited house, or otherwise cuts off a supply of water to such a house; and
does so without restoring the supply to that house before the end of the period of twenty-four hours beginning with the time when it is cut off,

the undertaker shall, no later than forty-eight hours after that time, serve notice that it has cut off that supply on the local authority in whose area the house is situated.

A water undertaker which fails, without reasonable excuse, to serve a notice on a local authority as required by subsection (1) above shall be guilty of an offence under this section.

A water undertaker shall be guilty of an offence under this section if—

it disconnects a service pipe to any premises, or otherwise cuts off a supply of water to any premises, in a case in which it has no power to do so under sections 60 to 62 above, section 75 below or any other enactment; or
in disconnecting any such pipe or cutting off any such supply it fails, without reasonable excuse, to comply with any requirement of the provisions in pursuance of which it disconnects the pipe or cuts off the supply.

A water undertaker is not guilty of an offence under subsection (3) where it disconnects a service pipe or otherwise cuts off a supply of water under section 61 in the circumstances mentioned in section 61(1ZB) (request from water supply licensee).

A water undertaker which is guilty of an offence under this section shall be liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale.

About this text

This legislation text comes from legislation.gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. These source and reuse terms cover the legislation text, not Remedy's commentary.

Reuse reviewed 21 August 2026 under Open Government Licence v3.0.