Southern Water Avis 

Discussing this water people.
I have reported a water leakage 4 weeks ago and they still haven't fix it, and the ting is is right next to the fire station.
They previous told me when i reported that the fire people already reported it and was on a 3 day to repair, so 5 weeks and still the same.

I don't care about hose pipe ban any more.

Would give zero star rating.
Unprofessional and rude useless company run by greedy corporate individuals who are grossly incompetent.

Disgusting

If i could leave i would!!!! Absolutely appalling customer service, my bill has shot up over £700 this last year, what we done tap tests, weve had an engineer out and no leaks!!! Ive asked them to test meter as it must be faulty, but they claim it cant possibly be, my bill has shot up from £80 to now £140 a month!!!! There is just me and my husband who live in the household, we both work, so not home all day running the taps!!! None of our habits have changed this last year to say we are using more water, but southern water do not believe us.........they asked if we had a dog???? Like that would cause that much of a jump in bill!!!!! Told them we live in a 2 bed house, not a mansion!!!! Im not a gardener, so rarely water that, and i rarely wash the car, so how we are using £140 a month is beyond me, having spoken to few of our neighbours they pay between £30 and £80 a month! Ive lodged a complaint and will take it further! There has to be a billing fault or faulty meter!! They said could be internal leak, we have had a plumber investigate, there is nothing. They will not investigate and basically saying if thats what the meter says then must be true!!!! Like i said, i will be taking this further, they are a complete rip off company, everytime i have contacted them, after approx 30 min wait, im told a different story everytime!!! No-one listens!!!

Reply from Southern Water regarding sewage outside my kitchen window.

Thank you for your contact received on 29 July 2026, about the rain water, affecting your drains at the rear of your property.

I am sorry, you have experienced this.

I can confirm the sewage drains are shared between 52, 50, 48 and 46. This drain joins the shared public combined drain in the road, down the alleyway between 46 and 44.

Hydraulic Overload

In times of heavy rainfall combined sewers and surface water sewers overflow because they do not have the capacity to cope with the volume of water. Rainfall can also infiltrate a foul sewer causing the sewer to overflow and/or unusable sanitation for customers.

All sewers are built to nationally agreed standards, but at times of extreme rainfall the sewers cannot cope and become full, this leads to everything backing up & flooding at lower points of a system.

If hydraulic overload occurs in your shared sewer, please contact Southern Water. This will be logged for information only and a reference number will be provided.

If you experience surface water flooding when it is currently raining, please call us on 0330 3030 368 if the problem still exists once it has stopped raining and there has been a 3-hour window to allow the water to naturally drain away.

Only after the 3-hour window we can attend, to investigate further.

Contact Details

I hope I have fully addressed your concerns; however, if you need any further assistance, please contact a member of our Operations Customer Service Centre on 0330 303 0368.

Yours sincerely,

We had a similar problem where I lived before. Answer, the rain water was not connected to the sewage pipes but had their own pipes and when it rained hard the road surface water was drained via pipe to the garden. There is a large field at the bottom of our homes so why is the rain water not piped to that? The Southern Water reply just demonstrates how so called experts have no brain cells these days.

Most confusing billing cycle ever. No consistency or transparency. The lady at customer service tried to help, but the bills don't make sense. Even the dumb letter they send isn't dated. They need to do a complete rehaul of customer communications.

Imagine a private company holding a public resource as a monopoly, offshiring its customer service to another part of the globe, where that country has water not privatised by a goverment who isn't charging through the roof for their resources as a monopoly.

Absolute scum of the earth.

Literally have no choice but to deal with these Muppets. The are extortionate, the highest increase in water bills across the country and to what? They leave leaks for weeks and when the finally get around to repairing, the thing breaks a couple of weeks late (Brading high street, Staplers road as examples) then take a number of weeks again to rectify their own ball ups. Then theres the irresponsible act of flooding the sea with turds at the slightest hint of rain fall and pass it off as emergency relief. Held to ransom over thos bunch of cowboys for a basic human right. Should re privatise and save the bonuses for the public.

National Disgrace

Absolute disgrace this quango making extortionate profits for the clown show executives. Rip off prices no meter readings and a circus for customer service. It has to stop.. now we have a regional alert for raw sewage in the local beaches on the south coast. Sack them no bonuses....

Absolutely awful. Possibly the worst company I've ever been unfortunate enough to have dealings with. It's absolutely criminal that we are given no choice, they have a forced monopoly and use it to squeeze money out of people while cometely ignoring all the massive infrastructure problems. The bosses should be in prison.

I told them I was moving out of the area. They confirmed by email that they had closed the account. They sent me a further bill. I told them again I'd moved. I cancelled the direct debit. They have now written to complain about that, two months after I had told them I'd moved out and they confirmed in writing the account was closed.

Owned a flat for nearly 10 years. Water bill paid by managing agents all this time.
Randomly decide they will open an account in my name without contacting me first, then sent me a bill which whilst incorrect in itself, is also well over the usual amount for the size of property and number of bedrooms. Did not bother to contact me, the board of directors or managing agents first. They have previously done this to another flat in the block.
Contacted them to inform them of this. Despite this being 100% their mistake, informed I needed confirmation from the managing agents. Forwarded this, and now informed this is not sufficient. Cannot satisfactorily explain to me why they opened an account without contacting me when nothing about the property or block has changed in over a decade.

We moved into a house in the New Forest in July and quickly realised that the tap water had a strong smell and taste of petroleum/hydrocarbon products. We contacted Southern Water and were advised not to drink or use the water in the house at all while they investigated the possible contamination.

We were told that bottled water would be provided as a kind of gesture. The first delivery, on around 6 August, was just 40 litres — essentially enough for one day (4 people living in the house).We were expecting further deliveries, but they simply didn’t arrive.

After calling again, we were told the water could arrive any time from Monday to Friday. Nothing came. We later contacted the technical team again and were specifically told that a delivery would be made by 3pm the following day. It still didn't arrive.

We are now missing around 400 litres of bottled water that we were told would be provided, while simultaneously being instructed not to use our own water because of suspected hydrocarbon contamination.

I understand that investigations can take time, but if customers are being told that their water supply may be unsafe, Southern Water has a responsibility to ensure they have an adequate supply of safe drinking water. Being repeatedly given delivery promises that aren't kept is simply unacceptable.

Very disappointing handling of what is already a very stressful situation.

P.S. a new lot of 40L water was delivered last Monday. We are still missing 480 L of water which was never delivered.

P.S. 26th of August 2026, no water delivered this week. Still waiting for the water analysis results

They took the normal direct debit during June, they then failed to take that direct debit in July sending me letters and I had to make a manual payment, the direct debit was still in place and has randomly this month updated to my previous direct debit on my old card and started charging that with no warning. Between constantly overcharging me and refusing to return credit and this If there was a single other water company I'd go for them.

We are very disappointed with Southern water. It is a rip off water supply company. Ever since new meters were installed. We have received a monthly bill of £111.00 for a family of 4, 2 adults and 2 children, which does not add up at all. Because we are hardly at home. We use to get a bill £35 to £40 with old meter. But now a massive increase, which is in unacceptable. When we spoke to the neighbours, they are facing the same problem. We reported the issue. They asked us to see if any leaks and sent an engineer to check but he checked everything and said there are no leaks. So I think it is billing problem.

If I could give no stars I would and I will start by saying there should be other companies you can buy your water from other than just southern water cos of the area you live in , they have taken money from my bank account for the last 2 months unauthorised and the again just today bare in mind I only paid 12 days ago when I called the lady said I’m sorry this has been a system error and to call my bank and get the money back this is fraud I can’t believe you treat your disabled customers like this plus I asked for your confession in a email because of your taking money from my account when you want it makes me in a minus and my car insurance isn’t being paid to Sterling so the think I keep defaulting when it’s not me but southern water taking money from people when the are not authorised I’m sick of this and all you can say is I’m sorry WTF I will be taking this higher I dnt care how much hassle it’s costing me I wnt let this go what’s the point being on a priority register???

What an absolute shower . I have been paying an obseen amount of money for water that is just running into the ground not even on my boundery . I have had an engineer out he said I don't need to put a probe in the ground as I can hear it 🤷 southern water can back and said after extensive examination they are confident it's not there main . My son in-laws best man used to work for them then went out on his own he got a friend of his that works for southern water to come round and said the leak was below the meter this is after there so-called extensive examination . He raised a job for it said they would be around the next day . 10 days later they turned up repaired the leak . Then the guy said had I got any appliances running I said no he said there is another leak on the drive and said I will locate it and let you know . 15 mins later looked out the window and they had all gone so rang south Easter on the Monday they said they had been informed about another leak and I had to get it fixed is said when where you going to tell me that . I must have rung them at least 10 times now and not once have they kept me informed they just keep taking my money !!!!!!!!!! Absolut shower

Disputed final bill after mum died and house was sold. The house had been empty for six months but there was still usage showing. Nobody had been in the house. I disputed the usage but all they kept saying was that they had a photo of the meter? I was questioning a fault with the meter or a leak but they weren't interested all they kept quoting was that they had a photo of the meter. Impossible to deal with and rubbish customer service. It is even possible if there was a leak that mum was overpaying and that Southern Water were overcharging a 90 year old with terminal cancer. Disgraceful customer service and company ethics. Reply from Southern Water noted. I will update if/when they respond to my complaint. Update, Southern Water have now responded to my Trustpilot review twice in a week telling me that they have shared the details with their team. Nothing from their team though. 24th August. Still no response from Customer Services. Update. Email from Customer Services 28/08/26 stating that they are happy with the meter reading and yet again stating that they have a photograph of the meter and asking me if I want them to investigate a meter fault or leak (which is what I asked them to do when I questioned the bill). I have replied that I would like them to investigate. Not sure why they don't call me rather than emailing. Couldn't make it up. Further update. From the email that Southern Water has sent me on 28/08/26 detailing the water usage over the last four years it shows that mum has used more water in the six months since she passed away than she did in the corresponding six months in the three years previous to her passing. Letter dated 02/09/26 stating that the water bill hasn't been paid and to make payment to avoid further action being taken. This bill is in dispute with there complaints team awaiting the outcome of checks for a faulty meter or leaks. It seems that they don't communicate with other departments within their own company very well either.
A further email from Southern Water on 22/09/26 stating that following review they have adjusted the amount of water consumed and that we no longer owe them anything and they hope that this resolves the matter. No explanation why or how they have adjusted, no apology for the effort and grief that they have caused. I think they are hoping I will go away now that they have said I don't owe them anything. Update, further contact with Southern Water explaining their adjustments and that mum actually used less water than average consumer and as a result they have adjusted the bills to reflect her average usage and that we owe them nothing and that they are going to credit the account circa £100, so after arguing for three months they have now said we are in credit and the account is closed.

Appalling. In 2023 my water bill was £16.90, rising to £45 in 2024 and as of last month it is £81.10 for 1 person. They claim I increased my water use by 30% last year 300% this year. I have paid out £350 in plumbers who have called and confirmed the issue is with the meter which shows a leak even when the the stop tap is off, meaning southern water are charging me to pour 200 litres of water a day into the street while I watch my garden shrivel and die. I have called 3 times and told them I cannot afford to pay this, particularly as nothing I can do to reduce the water lost and mitigate future bills as it is not even reaching my house. Operatives have given me different timescales as to if/when an engineer will come out ranging from 48 hours to 3 months, which I cannot wait for. Unless the water is shooting into the sky or pouring into the street they will come no sooner despite the fault being theirs. My combined energy bills are now a third of my water bill and I feel completely powerless to do anything. It honestly feels like I am being robbed every month and I cannot believe that this is allowed to happen.

Just watched a lazy Southern water nan get out his van open rear door then go sit back in his seat for over 2 hours donf f a

I'm trying to report a massive leak, which has been going for 2 days. Can't get hold of a human or actually leave a report on their system.... Only a drought going on....