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What are the water cases about?

Your water company may have been overcharging you for your water bills.

Professor Carolyn Roberts, an environmental and water specialist, is bringing legal claims against a number of water companies for overcharging their customers. These companies have allegedly been misleading their regulators by underreporting the number of pollution incidents, being discharges of wastewater from a company sewerage asset adversely affecting the water environment and resulting in higher customer bills.

These claims are collective actions which seek compensation for household customers who have paid, and continue to pay, higher water bills for the provision of sewerage services as a result of misreporting of pollution incidents by the six largest water companies to their regulators. More information on who may be eligible for compensation is available here

If you pay or have paid for wastewater services provided by one or more of the six water companies included in the claims, you could be entitled to compensation. We are issuing claims against each of these six water companies:

Thames Water

Learn more here

Severn Trent

Learn more here

Northumbrian Water

Learn more here

United Utilities

Learn more here

Yorkshire Water

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Anglian Water

Learn more here

Your Proposed Representative

Professor Carolyn Roberts is the class representative bringing these claims (see more information on the role of the class representative here).  Professor Roberts has issued these claims because she believes that a number of water companies have overcharged their customers as a result of allegedly underreporting the extent to which they have been polluting the water environment in breach of the rules these water companies must follow.

Professor Roberts has been an environmental and water consultant since 1988, and has undertaken innovative work in environmental science, management and technology for over thirty years. 

Professor Roberts has instructed the law firm Leigh Day to represent her in these collective proceedings. Leigh Day is a claimant-focused firm which has extensive experience of leading complex group claims.

You can find out more about Professor Roberts and Leigh Day in the About Us section here

Register to be kept updated on the claims.

News UpdatES

  • Five UK water companies appear in court for the first time in relation to allegations of underreporting pollution incidents and overcharging customers as a result

    A date has been set for the Competition Appeals Tribunal (CAT) to consider claims being brought on behalf of millions of overcharged household water customers against Severn Trent Water, United Utilities Water, Yorkshire Water, Northumbrian Water and Anglian Water.

  • Millions of water and sewerage bill payers could get payouts if new legal claims succeed – here’s what you need to know

    Millions of water and sewerage bill payers could be due compensation payouts of up to £109 each if a new set of group legal claims against several big water firms succeeds. It’s still early days and there are no guarantees, but here’s what you need to know.

  • First environmental collective action claim launched on behalf of millions of customers overcharged by water companies

    Law firm Leigh Day plans to file the UK’s first-ever “environmental” collective action against several wastewater companies accused of breaching the country’s antitrust rules, a week after an economic consultancy urged the country’s competition authority to open a probe based on the same allegations.

  • The Independent: Water firms face £800m legal action after ‘underreporting sewage discharges’

    Six English water companies will face legal action over allegations of underreporting pollution incidents and “unfairly overcharging” customers.
  • BBC: Water bills: Fight for money back over sewage leaks begins

    The UK’s six biggest water firms are facing legal action over claims they underreported pollution and overcharged customers. Severn Trent is the first in line, with claims against the other firms expected in the coming months. A law firm says it could result in customers on average receiving £40 each, but the process could take years and there is no guarantee of success.
  • The Times: Water firms could owe compensation to 20m customers over pollution

    About 20 million people could receive compensation from water companies via a legal claim alleging that firms have underreported sewage pollution. The first claim is being brought at the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) against Severn Trent, but further claims will be brought in the coming months against five other water companies.