South West Water Limited - Exeter

Richard H.

Two years ago after a minor leak in my house promised me that leaks would be detected quickly in the future. They then failed to produce a meter reading until a month ago. When they did my bill came to over £2700, obviously a leak. Nine months ago a valve shattered by my meter cutting off my water supply. Remedial action by SWW involved disconnection and re connection of the meter. Calculation of the amount of water lost in the leakage suggests that it started around the time of the valve failure. SWW immediately said the leak was my responsibility and threatened legal action if it was not fixed within 30 days.in a letter dated two days before Christmas. In fact my insurer's contractor arrived early in the new year looked around and found no sign of a leak on my property (I had informed SWW that there were no signs of wet spots in the garden in the summer) The contractor then dug down next to the meter and found the leak on the joint where it is connected to the meter.
No check was made after SWW's re-connection of the meter to see if there was any leakage after the work.
SWW seem in no hurry to stop the leak which is now their responsibility. I am constantly bombarded with emails from SWW asking me to save 5 litres of water a day. If I did this it would take over 75 years to save the amount of water lost through their leak. Why should we make an effort when a company who awarded its CEO a massive pay rise doesn't make any effort to read meters, fail on quality control and leaves water to run away at over 300 times their 5 litres a day?

Gavin S.

Due to a non-standard fitting on a water meter a plumber could not turn the water off and we had a leaking stopcock. It took 10 weeks for Southwest water to come out and meet up with our plumber so they could turn the water off themselves!
Thankfully the problem is now resolved no thanks to Southwest water though!
So no daily changing of towel wrapped around pipe under stopcock thankfully.
If I could change company I would!

Sean W.

What a disgrace South West Water you have fed thousands of Brixham residents,tourists and businesses including the surrounding area contaminated water.Many lives have been put at risk Brixham tourist industry is suffering not to mention all the Bars and Restaurants that may of been accused of causing food poisoning
My wife and I have been suffering problems that are related to cryptosporidium for some time, I had a test which came back positive its been a very painful time suffering with this sickness and diarrhoea and the thought it came from your own water tap
Saying sorry and offering 300.00 pounds is an absolute insult. we have now not been able to use the tap water for drinking or brushing our teeth for 6 weeks to date and have now lost our confidence of what comes from our tap
Look what you have done to our normally busy and buzzing town it's now like a ghost town. This picture was taken on Friday, May 17th at around 13.00
South West Water now needs to work with the Devon tourist industry to help repair the damage that this contamination has caused

Marie L.

Sending the High Court writ for less then 2k is abit extreme. I have PTSD and don’t find helpful when a member of staff laughed at me when I said about my mental health also note I have a water leak so I don’t owe as much as you say

Phil H.

This leaking issue has persisted for approximately 4 weeks. Despite this, all SWW has done is dug a hole and place cones around it at the bottom of Old Roselyn Road, Par.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/PfC4SCMAJgzrHfC97

Matthew N.

I live on my own and disabled and I've just had my bill this morning up £125.99 over last year to can you believe this £624.99 I've no words or means of paying daylight robbery and utterly disgusting, while there making billions and share holders living it up on yachts in the Caribbean while they keep pumping shit into the sea for everyone to get ill, a despicable company that should be now government run because of complete incompetence!!!!!

Gemma C.

If I could rate this company 0, I would!

We had a very high bill in Jan 2024, we were told it was a mains supply leak to our property (external) and was solely our responsibility. Despite many requests of help and checking as we had had works in the pavement and neighbours had similar issues, all requests rejected.

Due to the bad weather and issues with the entry point to the house, we had to wait a while to get this sorted. We had to take up our drive, take up our internal floors which has cost us thousands of pounds......the meter was still spinning, after a visit from SWW, turns out it was faulty meter installation.

I was chased almost daily by an enforcement team to rectify the leak, I sent regular updates and photos of progress and issues to SWW to prove we were trying. I also had an Inspector turn up and ask me to basically bodge it just to get it done, he told me to hide the join under the step, claim for a full new water supply pipe and move on!

I was promised on the phone that we would be reimbursed for all costs related to this seeing as it was not our fault. I submitted my invoices 27/03/2024 and I have not heard a word since, I have tried to chase on multiple occasions, the case manager is no where to be seen now it's all fixed! No support at all, no contact!

We have also had to submit multiple readings to rectify the bill, I submitted a series of readings on 11/04/24, and the bill has still not even been looked at!

I've given up trying to chase this and I will be taking it further with legal action.

john W.

Water bill has gone from £275 to £430 a year just to watch them pump sewage onto our beaches.