SUNSHINE and hot weather are smothering the UK as summer finally arrives.
But as the heat goes up, there is the risk of essential services being disrupted.
You could be entitled to refunds if a heatwave disrupts services
It’s not uncommon for train and transport operators to warn of significant delays and cancellations when there is extremely hot weather.
As temperatures keep soaring, more people could be affected.
So what are your rights if you experience problems because of the hot weather? Here we explain what you need to know.
Water outages
In this high heat, there is likely to be a lot of demand for water, putting pressure on water companies.
But you are protected by a number of rules if your taps stop running due to a water shortage.
According to Which?, if you have water supply problems unexpectedly because a water main bursts, your water company has 12 hours to turn it back on after discovering the issue.
If a larger “strategic” water main bursts, then your company has 48 hours to resolve the problem.
When you haven’t had any water for more than 12 hours, your firm should provide you with an alternative supply – such as bottled water or by putting a mobile water tank near your home.
Households must be given at least 10 litres of water per person within the first day of the outage.
And the water company must then carry on providing that supply until your water is turned back on.
Compensation is available in some cases.
If your water supply isn’t restored by the time the company says it will be, you should be able to get £20 for the first 24 hours.
After then, you should get an extra £10 for each further 24-hour period you don’t have running water.
If you don’t get sent this compensation within 20 working days, you can claim a further £20 on top.
Sometimes, this compensation will be paid automatically, either as a payment to you or as money credited to your water account.
However, not all companies do this and it might be that you have to make a claim to your company in writing.
If you aren’t sure, the best thing to do is contact your water company.
Rail travel delays
You may be able to get compensation for train journeys that have been delayed or cancelled by severe weather, but this isn’t automatic and you have to apply to get it.
Where rail companies are advising you not to travel, you might still be able to get a refund.
But this could differ from company to company, so you should contact the rail firm you have booked with to check.
Delay repay
All train companies have adopted “delay repay”, a national scheme used to compensate you for unexpected delays.
This sometimes includes bad weather.
Under the scheme, each passenger can get compensation for any delay of 15 minutes or more.
How much you get back depends on how long the delay is and the type of ticket you have.
The money you get back can range from 25% of the ticket price to 100%.
You’ll get a full refund if your train was delayed by 120 minutes or longer.
It doesn’t matter which train company you are travelling with as the scheme is nationwide and all the train companies are part of it.
However, exactly how you claim money back will be up to the train line and you’ll have to apply to them directly. You can usually do this online.
You’ll usually need a picture of your ticket and information about the train service you were on to claim.
Remember, you need to apply to the train company directly.
Each firm has their own system but you can usually do this online, or you can fill in a form and send in your ticket with it.
Refunds
When your train is cancelled or delayed, you should be able to get a refund – but only if you choose not to travel at all.
National Rail says your unused ticket can be refunded and you shouldn’t be charged a fee for this.
You can get the money back from where you bought the ticket originally.
If you aren’t happy about the service offered by a train company, then you can make a complaint.
In the first instance this should be sent to the train company directly – which you can do online, by email or over the phone.
You’ll need to provide information about the issue and your journey, such as departure station, date, time and ticket type.
You should be contacted within 20 days.
However, if you’re not happy with this you can ask the train company to look at it again and they will need to respond within 40 days.
If the first still hasn’t resolved the problem you can escalate the issue to the Rail Ombudsman.
The Rail Ombudsman is an independent, not-for-profit organisation that offers free advice to help customers resolve any complaints.
Internet outage
In the past, broadband providers have told customers to keep their routers out of the sun and in cooler areas of their home during high temperatures.
But what are your rights if a more serious problem with your network happens as a result of a heatwave?Â
The regulator Ofcom has an automatic compensation scheme which makes sure broadband and landline customers get their money back from their provider when things go wrong, without having to ask for it.
Most providers including BT are signed up to the scheme. You can check here to see if your provider is signed up.
If your broadband stops working, you simply have to report the fault to your provider to be in line for the compensation.
Also if your service doesn’t start when you expected it to, or if your engineer appointment is missed, your provider will pay you back automatically too.
Power outages
If the hot weather causes problems for the UK’s power network, there’s a chance that there could be a power outage.
Where this happens, you might be entitled to compensation.
If you are eligible depends on if a power cut is planned, how long it lasts for and if it was the network company’s fault, according to the energy regulator Ofgem.
Your local network company that maintains supply on the grid is responsible for fixing power cuts and responding to claims.
You can find your network company by using this tool from Ofgem.
Normally local network companies have 24 hours to restore supplies if more than 5,000 homes are affected by a single fault.
If you are cut off for 12 hours or more, you can claim:
- £75 as a domestic customer
- £150 as a non-domestic customer.
You can get a further £35 for each additional 12 hours of being off supply, up to a total of £300.
You can claim £20 if your gas supply goes off due to planned works, and your network operator did not give five days’ notice.
You can get more if you are off supply for more than 24 hours – the amount rises depending on how the outage lasts for.
If you want to make a claim you need to do this with your local network company.
Any claim must claim must be made within three months for unplanned supply cuts or one month for planned supply cuts.
You can make a claim through your local network company.
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