NWG Business Limited User-friendly Terms and Conditions for Our Transferred Customers

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1 NWG Business Limited User-friendly Terms and Conditions for Our The Scheme of Terms & Conditions for explains how we will provide you with water and/or wastewater services following your transfer from Northumbrian Water Limited (NWL) to NWG Business Limited. This short summary is designed to provide a concise and clear summary. However please do read the full legal version as not all points are covered within this summary. A short Glossary is included in section Why we need the scheme As part of the opening of the non-household retail market, Northumbrian Water Limited chose to transfer the non-household retail business to NWG Business Limited, another company in the Northumbrian Water Group, to ensure a clear focus on customer service and to enable us to compete nationally. The impact of this is that your water and wastewater supply has moved to NWG Business Limited. The overall principle however is that the price you are charged by us continues to be controlled using the same principles it was before the transfer happened. The terms and conditions under which we will supply your water and/or waste-water are set out in the Scheme of Terms & Conditions for ( Scheme ). This is not a contract as you have not entered into a contract with us. Until you move onto a contract, either with us or with another retailer, you will be referred to as a Transferred Customer and this Scheme will apply to your interaction with us and the prices we charge you. 2. Duration The scheme runs from 1 April 2017 (when the non-household water and sewerage retail market opened to competition) to the point when you: Ask us for a contract; Switch to a different retailer; Move your business entirely out of the Northumbrian Water or the Essex & Suffolk Water Area of Supply. 3. Service We will let you know as soon as possible if there is an expected interruption to your water supply. If you experience an interruption to your water supply that we haven t told you about, please contact your Wholesaler. On occasion if there is an emergency, we may ask you to reduce your demand for water or reliance on the sewerage system. If we are provided with information on a public health issue, you will be notified as soon as possible. EW-TRA-TS Page 1 of 6

2 To provide services to you, we will continue to need: Safe and unobstructed access, at reasonable times that we agree with you in advance, to your premises, e.g. for meter reading; and Information to enable us to provide Services. If you think your demand for water is likely to change significantly, please contact us as soon as possible to let us know the details so that we can manage your supply effectively. We also offer a range of value add services. Please contact us for details. 4. Charges You need to pay your bills, which will be calculated in line with the charges set out in the Price Conditions associated with the Scheme of Terms & Conditions for. We will update the charges from time to time, in particular when your Wholesaler change their wholesale prices. When we update the charges, we will publish details on our website and give you notice. As well as the standard charges for water and wastewater services, we will also pass on any charges from your Wholesaler for any activities undertaken by them, either from necessity or at your request, including a small administration charge reflecting our costs in the process. In addition, you will need to pay us for our costs and expenses if you haven t met your obligations as outlined in the scheme. Such charges may include late payment fees, disconnection/reconnection charges, fees we are charged if you miss an appointment or do not provide access as needed and any charges to repair damage to metering equipment. Details of these charges are also set out in the Price Conditions associated with the Scheme of Terms & Conditions for. If you think you are entitled to a discount or other payment, please let us know. If we identify that we have not met our stated service standards, we will notify you and credit your account with the appropriate compensation. All charges are stated excluding Value Added Tax (VAT). VAT may be payable depending on the nature of your business and on the services provided. 5. Invoicing and Payment We will issue you with invoices on the same frequency as you have been used to. This may be annual (for unmeasured premises) or six monthly, quarterly or monthly. We will continue to issue your invoice by the same method as you have previously received, either via post or electronically. However, you can choose to change this at any time. You can continue to pay via the same method you previously paid by. All our payment methods are shown on the invoice. We ask you to pay the full invoice amount within 14 working days of the date of the invoice, unless you already have a payment arrangement in place. If you pay by Direct Debit, your charges will change either monthly, if you pay the bill amount each time, or at the end of your payment arrangement with us. We will always do our best to give you appropriate notice when we change the direct debit amount. EW-TRA-TS Page 2 of 6

3 We may ask you to provide us with details of your bank account in case we need to make payments to you. To reduce our costs (and therefore your bills) and to minimise the risk of fraud, we will only issue payments by cheque in exceptional circumstances. If you don t pay by the due date stated on the invoice, we will send you a reminder and may ultimately have to disconnect your water supply or initiate court proceedings. There are costs associated with these processes. We may also charge you interest on overdue amounts. We would much rather have an early conversation with you if you are having difficulty paying. Should you disagree with the invoice you have been sent, please let us know. However, we do still ask you to pay 75% of the bill while we work with you to resolve disputed items. If we find that we have billed you incorrectly, such that we owe you a refund or that you owe us further amounts, we will send you additional invoices or credit notes to correct the bill up to a maximum of sixteen months after the consumption period end. 6. Credit Support We may ask you to provide a security deposit or other form of credit support if your payment history or credit rating suggest that this is necessary to protect our business. 7. Our Quality and Standards We are licensed by the water regulator, Ofwat, to deliver services to you our intention is to deliver these with reasonable care and in line with all relevant legislation. The minimum standard of the Service that we provide to you is guaranteed by our Service Standards. If we fail to meet these standards, we will pay compensation to you. These Service Standards (and compensation rules) are available on our website at 8. Metering If your premises does not have a meter installed, please disregard this section. If you do have a meter then it is probably owned by your Wholesaler, unless it is a private meter, and NW continue to have the obligation to maintain and to assess the accuracy of the meter and associated ownership rights. As such you will need to provide safe and unobstructed access to the meter in your property - we ll let you know when this is needed. If we need to do any work to your meter, we ll agree an appointment time with you prior to doing the work. Meter reading frequency will continue as before. To ensure you get accurate bills, we need at least one actual read each year this could be provided by you or taken by a meter reader on our behalf. If a meter reading is missed for any reason, we will use an estimated read to calculate your bill. We may also undertake ad hoc reads from time to time for verification purposes. If you are looking to fit anything to your meter, you do need consent from your Wholesaler first so please contact us and we ll help you with this. Please don t damage or interfere with your meter. If you do, we will charge you for any costs incurred in resolving the issue. EW-TRA-TS Page 3 of 6

4 9. Confidentiality and Data Protection Confidentiality We will only share your Confidential Information 1 when it is required for us to comply with relevant laws and regulations, and only with the wholesaler and/or a regulatory body or court. Apart from this, we won t disclose your Confidential Information without your written consent. Data Protection We will always comply with the Data Protection Act and other relevant data protection legislation. Please see our Privacy Policy at We may use, process and disclose your Personal Data 2 in accordance with our Privacy Policy to enforce our legal and contractual rights or for reasons of public health and safety or national security. We may need to share your Personal Data with our group companies and may also share it, where relevant, in accordance with our Privacy Policy, with: Your Wholesaler and any of their representatives in connection with water / wastewater provision; MOSL the company which manages the competitive market for water; Our professional advisers such as lawyers or auditors; With any buyer or potential buyer of our business. We may record calls and communications with you for various purposes. We may share information in relation to your business property with credit reference agencies, fraud prevention agencies and in certain circumstances, with debt collection agencies. We may also check any publicly available records about you or your business and also any records held by our group companies. 10. Addition or Removal of Transferred Premises The list of properties covered by this scheme of terms and conditions is as at 1 April 2017, subject to changes such as vacating a premise or changes because of eligibility. If you move within the your Wholesaler area, your new premises may also be eligible to be supplied under this scheme. Should you wish to enter into a contract for your water and/or wastewater supply with us, please let us know and we will provide you with a quote for our charges. From the point of contracting with us, this scheme will no longer apply. 1 This means information not publicly known, used in or otherwise relating to your business, customers, or financial or other affairs which we have obtained as a result of performing this Scheme. This excludes Personal Data. 2 Personal Data means data which relate to a living individual who can be identified (a) from those data, or (b) from those data and other information which is in our possession or likely to come into our possession and includes any expression of opinion about the individual and any indication of our intentions or any other person in respect of the individual; EW-TRA-TS Page 4 of 6

5 Should you wish to change suppliers and therefore exit this scheme, your new retailer will advise you of the process. We will do our best to complete the switch within 20 business days. We have the right to refuse your request to switch if you have outstanding debts to us. If you have a portfolio of properties and are adding or removing any, there may be an impact to the charges we make to you. We will advise you of these. 11. Disconnection We may disconnect your water supply, at your cost, if: You ask us to because you no longer need a water and/or sewerage services to the property; You are found to have stolen water by interfering with the meter or making an unauthorised connection to the main; You break the law in relation to contamination or any consents you have in place; or You do not pay our invoices in line with the process outlined above. We may disconnect your water supply, at our cost, if: Work on the network requires it; or Disconnection is required to prevent contamination If any of the above scenarios arise and we are intending to effect disconnection, we will contact you as soon as possible and will explain the reasons and hopefully be able to minimise disruption to your activities. 12. Termination We may give you notice that we are terminating this Scheme if we identify that your premises are not eligible premises or the use changes such that they are no longer eligible. By this we mean that if your property either is or becomes a household property (e.g. it was a Church but is converted to a residential property), it would no longer be part of the competitive market so we would transfer the supply back to your Wholesaler. You may terminate the scheme at any time, with no exit charge or fee. You will be liable for any charges up to the termination date. 13. Rights to transfer or sub-contract We have the right to transfer this Scheme to another licensed Retailer and we will notify you if we do so. We may also sub-contract any of our obligations where we believe this is more costeffective or delivers a better service to you. 14. Disputes Please let us know if you have a complaint. Details of our complaint handling process can be found on our website at If you re still unsatisfied with the outcome, you may choose to contact the Consumer Council for Water for advice. Further information can be found at EW-TRA-TS Page 5 of 6

6 15. Changes to the Scheme We will carry out periodic reviews and may change the terms of this Scheme. The Price Conditions will be reviewed at least annually, in line with the price setting process of your Wholesaler. In addition, we may be required to update this Scheme in order to comply with changes to relevant laws or under the direction of our regulators. If we propose to vary the terms of the Scheme, we will give you 30 days notice of the proposed changes. 16. Glossary Non-household A premises as defined under the Water Industry Act 1991 section 17C. These are premises that are not principally used as a home. Retailer Wholesaler the provider of retail water and waste water services such as meter reading, invoicing, water efficiency services and customer services The company which owns, controls and maintains the water and/or sewerage network that supplies your business with water and sewerage services. For the purposes of this document this is Northumbrian Water Limited, covering their Northumbrian Water and Essex & Suffolk Water areas of supplu 17. Contact details Us (your Retailer) NWG Business Limited (NWGB) Telephone: hello@nwgb.co.uk Website: Your Wholesaler Northumbrian Water - Essex & Suffolk Water - EW-TRA-TS Page 6 of 6