Terms of Business

Our Details

• SmartSource Water is a trading name of SmartSource Drainage & Water Reports Limited.
• We are a limited company registered in England and Wales. Our Companies House registration number is 06721621.
• We are registered as a Data Controller with the Information Commissioner's Office. Our registration number is PZ1851203.

Definitions

• Commission - Our share of any Savings.
• Contract - Your agreement with Us under these Terms of Business.
• Contract Period - The length of time that You chose to use Our Service in Your Registration.
• Guaranteed Savings - The savings that You were offered when You joined (for example, £25 per year or another offer).
• Monthly Payment - The amount that You are due to pay Us.
• Registration - Short for Our Registration Form.
• Savings - Any reduction in the Water Charges during the Contract Period when compared with those applying at the date that We accepted Your Registration.
• Service - Our Water Bill Reduction service.
• Statement - A record of Your account with Us.
• Terms - These Terms of Business.
• Property - The address using water services.
• Us, Our and We - SmartSource Drainage & Water Reports Limited, trading as SmartSource Water.
• Water Bill - Your latest complete bill from your water and sewerage company. If the Property is charged separately for water and sewerage, this means the latest bills for both services.
• Water Company - Either (1) a company dealing with both water and sewerage - or, in areas where clean water comes from one company and sewerage services from another - (2) both of these companies. This only includes companies listed by OFWAT as water and sewerage companies (or water only companies).
• Water Charges- The total amount of money that You are charged (including discounts) by Your Water Company over any given period.
• You, Your and Yours - The person registering as our customer.

Agreement

By registering to use the Service You are agreeing to these Terms of Business.

Roles

• We will look for ways to cut Your water bill and We will give You regular updates about Our progress.
• You are asking Us to act for You in relation to water services at the Property.
• You will take reasonable steps to help Us to achieve these savings for You.
• You must let us know about anything that might reasonably be expected to affect Your water charges.
• If You pay Your Water Company on a weekly, fortnightly or monthly basis You will make any payment that is due to Your Water Company within the first month of the Contract Period.

Your Registration

We will normally accept Your Registration if all of the following are true:

• You are the person responsible for paying the Water Charges (or they have asked You to act for them).
• The Property is in either England or Wales and is served by a Water Company.
• The Water Charges are more than £100 p.a.
• You are over 18 years old.
• You are up-to-date with Your payments to Your Water Company.
• Your Registration is true and complete.

Payments

When We receive Your Registration We will work out Your payments using the following:

• Your Water Charges.
• If You moved in within the last 12 months – or have not yet moved in – You must let Us know this before You ask for a quote or Register.
• The water bill that You send Us should cover a period no shorter than three months. If Your bill covers a shorter period than this, please send us the previous bill as well. If You cannot do so because You have only recently moved in (or if You have not yet moved in), please contact Us.
• The Guaranteed Savings (the savings You were offered when You Registered).
• Any payments that You have made to the Water Company, or are due to make within one month of Your contract start date.
• The cost of any services received from the Water Company that have not yet been invoiced.

Guaranteed Savings & Commission

• We guarantee that You will receive a discount that is at least equal to Your Guaranteed Savings (compared with Your Water Charges at the time we accepted Your Registration) in each year of Your Registration.
• The amount that You pay for water is capped; We will not ask You to pay more than a fixed amount in each year of Your contract with Us. We set this using both the Guaranteed Savings and Your Water Charges on the date that we accepted Your Registration.
• We will share savings with You on a 50:50 basis.
• Our commission is based on the Savings that We secure for You.
• Our commission includes VAT.
• In some cases We will cut Our commission, or We will not charge You any commission. For example:
  • We will charge You a reduced rate of commission if this is required to ensure that You will receive Your Guaranteed Savings.
  • We will not charge You any commission on savings gained from moving to a tariff that exists to help vulnerable customers.
  • We will not charge You any commission if We did not play any part in making a particular saving and You would have received it automatically even if You had not registered with Us (for example if Your Water Company happened to lower their tariffs for all of their customers).
  • Any other case where We think that it would not be fair to charge You.
• In all other cases We have a right to charge commission on all Savings.
• Where we identify past over-charging We will claim money back for You and share the benefit with You 50:50.

Payment

• You must arrange for all payments to be made into Our bank account.
• Your payment amount is guaranteed if You make Your first payment by the date stated in Your welcome letter. If Your payment is made after this date then We may need to recalculate Your Payment Amount.
• Your payments must clear into Our bank account by the date that they are due.
• If any payment is more than 28 days late We may end Our contract with You.
• All payments that We receive from You that are not due to be paid (1) to the Water Company to settle a future bill; (2) back to You as Your share of a saving made on Your water bill; (3) to Us as Our commission for achieving savings from Your water bill; or, (4) to any other party for any other reason agreed by You; will be owed as a debt by Us to You until they are either paid back to You or become due to be paid to someone else.

Statements

• We will send You annual statements.
• If You prefer, You can ask us to send statements more frequently (every half-year, quarter or month).
• You can ask for an interim statement at any time.

Contacting You

• You can contact Us using any of the contact methods given below.
• You must let Us know if You change Your phone number or e-mail address.
• We will contact You by phone, e-mail or letter.

Interest

We will not charge You interest, or pay interest to You.

Confidentiality & Data Protection

• We will need to contact other organisations, such as Water Companies, on Your behalf so that We can deliver the Service to You.
• If You instruct Us to, We will set up a Standing Order for You by contacting Your bank.
• We will not pass any information about You to any other organisation for any other purpose (unless required by law).
• We only keep information about You for as long as is necessary. We will securely dispose of any information about You that We believe is no longer needed.

Complaints

• We aim to give You a high standard of service. If You are disappointed with any aspect of Our Service please let Us know by phone, e-mail, fax or post using the contact details given below.
• If You are not satisfied with Our response, We have a formal Complaints Procedure that You may choose to follow. Details of this procedure are available on request, or from Our website (www.smartsourcewater.co.uk/complaints).

If You Move

If You plan to move, You must let Us know. Normally We can arrange to transfer Your account to Your new address, but in some cases this may not be appropriate and We will need to cancel Your contract. We make Our decision using the same criteria that We used for deciding whether to accept a new Registration (as listed above). Some examples of moves that would result in the cancellation of Your contract include where You plan to move:

• Abroad
• Into a shared home where You would not be responsible for all of the water bill
• Into a home that is not connected to water and/or sewerage systems operated by a Water Company

If We need to cancel Our contract with You as a result of a move, We will not charge You a cancellation fee provided that You do what We reasonably ask You to do as part of the cancellation process. In particular, We will ask for information about Your move, such as the date that You plan to move out and Your new address. We may also ask to see documents relating to Your move. If You choose not to provide this information We may apply the cancellation fee.

Cancellation

If You would like to cancel Your contract You can contact Us by phone, e-mail, fax or post using the contact details given below.

If You ask Us to cancel Your contract in the first 14 days We will not charge You a cancellation fee. You will receive a full refund of any money that You have paid to Us within 7 days of the date on which We received Your cancellation request. We will not charge you a cancellation fee.

If You want to cancel Your contract after the first 14 days:

• We will produce a statement of account.
• You will need to repay any Savings gained through Our Service.

If We find that We owe You money at the date that Your contract ends please let Us know if You would like Us to credit that amount to Your bank account or send You a cheque.

We can cancel Your contract with Us provided that:

• We explain why.
• We give You 28 days written notice.
• We have paid the Water Charges that are due up to the cancellation date.
• We have paid back any outstanding credit owed to You (including Your share of any Savings) on the cancellation date.

Insurance

We hold professional indemnity insurance.

Changes to Our Terms of Business

• If You would like another copy of the Terms of Business that You received when You Registered, please contact Us.
• If We wish to change the Terms of Business for Our contract with You we will send you a copy so that You can decide whether to accept them. We will always give You at least one month to consider any new Terms (from the date that We sent them). You will not need to reply if You accept the revised Terms of Business. If we do not receive any objection from you within that period You will have accepted The revised Terms. If You do not accept the new Terms We will contact You and try to agree a solution with You. Until (or unless) a solution is agreed, the Terms You were sent when You Registered will apply.

Contacting Your Water Company

• We will contact Your Water Company for You when we need to in relation to Your billing account with them.
• If the Water Company contact You about Our Service, or any issue related to it, You will let us know as soon as You can.
• You must contact Your Water Company if You suffer a problem that is not connected with Our Service. For example, if You have a problem with low water pressure, flooding, poor water quality (taste, smell, etc).

Recommend A Friend

At the end of each month we check how many friends named You as their recommender and have been registered with Us for more than two weeks and have made their first payment to Us. We then pay You £5 for each of these friends (except those that we have already paid for in an earlier month). We will then send the payment within one week of each month end.