Water Industry Act 1991

General restrictions on chargingE+W

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146 Connection charges etc. and charges for highway drainage.E+W

(1)Subject to subsection (2) below, nothing in this Chapter or in any other enactment shall entitle any relevant undertaker to fix, demand or recover an initial charge for its becoming, or for its taking steps for the purpose of becoming—

(a)the person who provides a supply of water for domestic purposes to any premises; or

(b)the person who provides sewerage services for the purposes of the drainage for domestic sewerage purposes of any premises.

(2)Subject to subsection (3) below, nothing in subsection (1) above or in any other enactment shall be construed as prohibiting the fixing, demand or recovery by a relevant undertaker of—

(a)a charge for the connection to a water supply of premises which have never at any previous time (whether before or after the coming into force of the restriction contained in this section) been connected to a supply of water provided for domestic purposes by a water undertaker or by any other authority or body which at that time provided supplies of water in the course of carrying out functions under any enactment; or

(b)a charge for the connection to a public sewer of premises which have never at any previous time (whether before or after the coming into force of the restriction contained in this section) been connected to a sewer used for the drainage for domestic sewerage purposes of those premises by a sewerage undertaker or by any other authority or body which at that time provided sewerage services in the course of carrying out functions under any enactment.

(3)Nothing in this Chapter or in any other enactment or in the terms of any agreement under section 104 above shall authorise a sewerage undertaker to require any payment to be made to the undertaker in respect of the making by the undertaker of any declaration of vesting under Chapter II of Part IV of this Act or in respect of any agreement to make such a declaration.

(4)Nothing in this Chapter or in any other enactment shall authorise a sewerage undertaker to require any payment to be made to the undertaker by a highway authority in respect of the drainage of any highway or the disposal of the contents of any drain or sewer used for draining any highway.

(5)The preceding provisions of this section, so far as they restrict the making of certain charges, shall be without prejudice—

(a)to enactments by virtue of which a relevant undertaker may recover expenses incurred by it in carrying out works; and

(b)to the power of any such undertaker, by virtue of section 142(4) above, to fix the amount of any of its other charges by reference to such matters as it thinks appropriate.

(6)In this section “domestic sewerage purposes” has the same meaning as in Chapter II of Part IV of this Act.

147 Charging for emergency use of water.E+W

(1)Notwithstanding anything [F2in section 38(2) of the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004, or anything] in section 142 above or in any charges scheme under section 143 above or in any agreement as to charges in respect of any supply of water, no charge may be made by any water undertaker [F3or water supply licensee] in respect of—

(a)water taken for the purpose of extinguishing fires or taken by a [F4fire and rescue authority] for any other emergency purposes;

(b)water taken for the purpose of testing apparatus installed or equipment used for extinguishing fires or for the purpose of training persons for fire-fighting; or

(c)the availability of water for any purpose mentioned in paragraph (a) or (b) above.

(2)This section shall not prevent the making of charges in respect of work carried out at the request of or for the benefit of any person receiving a supply of water for the purposes mentioned in paragraph (a) or (b) of subsection (1) above.

(3)This section shall not have the effect, where any water is used or made available for any of the purposes mentioned in paragraph (a) or (b) of subsection (1) above, of requiring a reduction in the charges imposed in respect of the provision for other purposes of the supply from which that water is taken.

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