How your charges are calculated
For most customers, the cost of removing and processing the rainwater is charged as part of your wastewater services. If you think your surface water is not being removed, you can apply for a reduction by getting in touch with our team.
If you are billed based on the Rateable Value (RV) of your home, the surface water drainage cost will be calculated based on your RV figure.
For water meter customers or customers that are billed on assessed charges, the surface water drainage cost will be calculated based on the property type (flat/terraced, semi-detached, or detached).
To see how you are charged, read our Scheme of Charges.
Applying to remove your surface water charges
You may be able to reduce or remove your surface water drainage charge if you can show that all of the rainwater from your property drains somewhere other than the public sewer.
This usually means that 100% of the rainwater from your roof, driveway, paths and other hard surfaces drains into a soakaway or another private drainage system.
Before applying, it's important to check where your surface water drains. This can sometimes be difficult to identify, particularly on newer developments.
If your sewerage services are provided by another water company, you'll need to contact them directly about any reduction (can we change this to removal) to your surface water drainage charges. This may apply if you live near the edge of our region. Your bill will tell you who provides your sewerage services.
Water butts are not eligible for a reduction. Although they collect some rainwater from roofs, they only store a limited amount of water and do not prevent all surface water from entering the drainage system.
If you believe 100% of your surface water does not drain into the public sewer, please contact us and we'll investigate for you.
You can also carry out a surface water drainage test to help determine whether your property is connected to the public sewer.
When the change to your bill will apply from
If you can show us that no surface water from your property or any shared area nearby drains directly or indirectly into a public sewer, we’ll stop charging you for surface water drainage. The change will take effect from the later of:
We consider each application individually. If your application is successful, your future bills will show ‘wastewater only’ instead of ‘wastewater and surface water drainage’.
If you think you may be eligible for this reduction, please get in touch with evidence such as photographs or drainage plans.
We’re here to help and will guide you through the process.
Understanding the highway drainage charges
Highway drainage is water that drains from any roads and footpaths that flow into public drainage systems.
There have recently been some small changes to the way we explain your bill and how the costs are broken down.
If you are unsure how your highway drainage charges are calculated, please read about our highway drainage charges.