Southern Water Reviews 

My bill went up by a staggering 51.3% last year thanks to OFWAT. My monthly DD went from £15 to £29 I cancelled and complained. I refused to pay for a year. Southern refused to accept the complaint of my price increase. They then sent me to a debt recovery for a mere £109 outstanding bill. I'm now reluctant to pay £20 every 2 weeks for a shoddy company.

I am having to take extra measures to even get a response from Southern Water.

At the beginning of the year, I noticed that my bill was significantly higher than usual. While this issue has since been resolved, I have been unable to access my online account to review my billing details. This problem has now persisted for several months.

Despite resetting my password numerous times - each attempt being confirmed successfully - I continue to receive an error message when trying to log in.I have contacted customer service multiple times via phone, WhatsApp, and email, yet I have received no meaningful resolution. Tomorrow will be my 4th Friday of calling them attempting to get a solution. I was initially informed that my case had been escalated and that I would receive a response within 30 days. After following up, I was then told I would hear back within five days - however, no such response has been provided. I simply want to be able to login to my account so I can see the billings on my account.

Instead, I have repeatedly been sent password reset links, which does not address the underlying issue. As a customer you can reset the password and do not need them to do this for you.

Last Friday, I spent an additional 45 minutes on the phone with the team, and once again, no progress has been made. I have even requested something as simple as setting up a new account, but this has also not been actioned.

This level of service is extremely disappointing. I have spent a considerable amount of time trying to resolve what should be a straightforward issue, and I expect to have access to my account as a paying customer.

I was promised an email with a statement to show my outgoings and what I was paying for last Friday and still nothing has been made clear.

I would appreciate your urgent attention to this matter and a clear resolution without further delay.

They have been truly useless and I am pretty sure the technical team is non existent at this point as we are five months into the year and I have not heard from them once.

I live in a one-bedroom flat in Brighton and Hove, one of three flats in our building. Every single flat pays its own set of standing charges to Southern Water, meaning our building collectively pays over £1,050 per year before a single drop of water is used. The identical house next door pays £350. Same area, same pipes, same water. We pay three times as much in fixed charges simply because we live in flats. There is no justification for this whatsoever.

Then came the April 2026 bill. The variable water rate jumped 28% overnight. Not gradually. Not with any meaningful support or explanation. Just a near-third increase handed to customers who have absolutely no ability to switch supplier or challenge it.

To make matters worse, the wastewater charge on my bill is actually higher than the water supply charge itself. I am being charged more to remove water than to provide it. Southern Water has been repeatedly fined for pumping sewage into our rivers and coastlines, the very waterways they are supposed to protect, and yet here we are, paying premium prices for the privilege.

This company operates as a monopoly, answers to a regulator that has repeatedly failed consumers, and continues to extract maximum profit while polluting our environment. I am one person in one flat, but I intend to make as much noise as possible about this. Enough is enough.

I had to get on multiple calls with the customer service team as I can’t simply understand them. I eventually got through to someone who could explain something but still wasn’t perfect and they still couldn’t understand me!! How do these people get jobs on the phone??

On top of not being able to understand each other, if I did get through to someone who was clear they were utter heartless.

As much as I hate it, you’d might as well implement AI!!! Or nothing at all as they are both pointless.

This needs to be sorted out ASAP!

Complete scam. Avoidance best describes their customer service and complaints team. Our usage increased 10x in a 6 month period apparently, on top of a 47% increase in prices. Spent 15 days trying to speak to someone with no avail. On top of that, the quality of the water is the worse I've ever experienced.

my water bill close enough to my dual energy bill, wondering what actions taken by watch dog.

Useless company!!! I had a drainage engineer come round to inspect my drains, as we have rats getting into the loft. He told us to contact southern water as their shared drain had collapsed and he was pretty sure that's how they were getting in. Called them and spoke to a woman who told us they would be round in 7-10 days and that she would send a reference number. After a week of hearing nothing and not receiving the reference number, we called back and they hadn't even bothered to log it anywhere, so now we have another 7-10 day wait, being kept up all night by the rats. Absolutely shockingly useless!!!

Worst water company. Caused damage to my property broken my front door left me with a external leak the lousy goes on I have evidence supporting all these issues. Awful customer service nothings been resolved it’s been 8 months! 0 stars

There has been no communication. My latest bill was like for many a considerable increase. I calculated the variable charge. It is 62% YOY increase.

I queried this with Customer Services, who stated the valuation office had changed my bands. Having looked at this, it hasn't. This feels very much like fraudulent feedback in order to fob the customer off. And that I should take it up with them.

I'd argue it's an intentional strategy as part of the contact centre scripts. Clearly the regulator isn't fulfilling it's duty enabling Southern Water to quite literally get away with it.

My partner died 15th Jan 2026, so i contacted southern water to transfer the account, they did & then sent me a demand for £92, i said this was wrong, they recognised whoever set up the account did it incorrectly & would adjust it. They did but then wanted to charge me £36.22 for 13 days, I have called them at least 10times & explained Portsmouth water area annual charge is £437.95 divide this by 12 gives £36.50 divide this by 2 as i only had 13 days should be £18.25. I have called them about 10 times had red demands through as they still don't get it. I even had a debt collection agency chasing my dead partners estate. I've escalated it today to a stage 1 complaint & they gave me £20 off for my troubles, these people need shooting its traumatic enough my partner of 33 years dying without dealing with morons.

Incompetence that makes you contemplate existence.
My nan died. I rang them whilst executing the will and told them. I sent a death certificate. They posted the last bill in my name.
Rang once explained for the will we need a bill in her name, the account holder for the last 8 years.
Sent the bill in my name.
Rang twice...
Rang thrice...
...Rang 6 times.
Just received the bill in my name again.
Rang again and was told I couldn't deal with it because on their system the account is in my dead nans name and they need to speak to her.
Spoke to them on WhatsApp. Vikash said he has passed it on to the bereavement team so I can let them know my nan has passed.
She died in January, its the 21st of April, they have the death certificate. Southern water are single handed holding up hundreds of thousands in inheritance for tens of people. As they cant get a name on a letter right with 7 attempts.

DREADFUL company!
They sent me an email saying our bill was over £1100 and I went into shock. But... when I logged into our account, it turns out this is our entire annual consumption and we were in CREDIT on our account and our monthly payments had REDUCED.... BUT... There was absolutely NO mention of this in the email.
What a horrible way of scare mongering customers. Imagine if I'd been a fragile elderly person; I'd have been distraught or even had a heart attack.
Southern Water: do you treat all your customers in this abysmal way or were you just singling us out???
DISGUSTING, UNWARRANTED TREATMENT of customers who are paying your salaries!!!

God level INCOMPETENCE just absolutely disgusting staff and company. It actually hurts them to use their brain lol

Most incompetent company ever, i moved into my flat in November and I have been trying to register with southern water since November and it has not been possible. I have emailed them. I have called them, they've called me, they then promised a call back. They made me wait a month for a call back and they still have not sorted it. Luckily, I have everything proven via email. So if they try to accuse me of not paying them, I can show that they have not allowed me to register with them absolute shambles of a company.

just had to write another review about this DISGUSTING company.
I received a huge bill and i explained i would pay x amount now and x amount on a given date.
I have been bombarded with calls and am now receiving threatening letters basically saying pay up or else.
Look at your reviews southern water, literally all 1 star, what are you doing about it ? Nothing, that's what you are doing.
Customer support, what a joke

If I could I’d leave 0 stars we now pay 150 per month another robbery of a bill to leave people with nothing that’s UKs plan to starve us all to death

Absolutely terrible and frustrating customer service, feels like the staff have absolutely no idea what they're talking about!!

If I could change provider I would! For a simple issue of rejected direct debit I've already contacted the online chat and then tried the WhatsApp service, awful. So frustratingly slow and useless, they are very polite and respectful but as if they knew nothing and as if they needed to get a cuppa tea in between answers, so utterly useless, repeat the same information again and again without trying to understand the actual problem. I tried calling and with the automated system all I could reach was a automated payment method. All I want is to talk with a human that is giving me all their attention, and not a chat service where they are talking to many customers at the same time. All this on top of being an overpriced polluting service!

I contacted Southern Water regarding my annual bill increase of 11%, which became a monthly increase of 31%...the answer from the phone person was incomprehensible. Essentially the billing process is disconnected from reality and is not at all transparent, they "manage" our bill for us. Then the simple question of how is the estimated usage (no water meter) calculated? No idea. What is the actual base calculation, oh we cannot tell you that. Ok when is the water meter going to be installed...oh there is a 5 year plan...it will be done by "block", so there is a plan? so you will have an estimated timeline - "we cannot tell you that"...so not even by post code? So there is no plan to which the company can held to account. Absolutely the worst company who are simply fleecing their customers, who have no alternative.

Extremely disappointed with Southern Water. My bill has increased significantly with no clear explanation and no improvement in service.
At a time when households are already under financial pressure, this feels completely unjustified and unfair. Water is a basic necessity, not a luxury, yet customers are being hit with excessive charges and little transparency.
This has seriously damaged my trust in the company. I expect far better communication and accountability. Very poor experience.