Landlord web service to help tackle major source of water debt

The Landlord TAP website is up and running, giving all landlords an easy way to provide basic details of tenants responsible for paying their water bill and helping to tackle this major source of water debt.

By visiting the website, landlords can complete a simple form to provide voluntarily basic information which is then passed direct to the relevant water company. They can use the service to add and change details without having to contact a water company direct.

Customer debt currently adds £15 on to everyone's water bill. By far the biggest source of bad debt comes from tenants of rented properties who leave before settling their water bill.

Unlike other sectors, water companies have no contracts with their consumers because they supply water on a statutory basis and consumers are not obliged to inform their water company when they move in or out of a property.

To make a real difference to the cost of bad debt, water companies need information about all their customers, not just some of them. We will be working with landlords, their representatives and other stakeholders, including government, to ensure that companies have the information they need, covering all rented properties, whether in the private or social sector or smaller or larger enterprises.

The Welsh Government recently made it mandatory for landlords to provide tenants' details to water companies.

The new service is available at Landlord TAP

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