• Can’t fix a water supply problem outside your property? You won’t pay for the repair of this section? We’ll cut off your water supply.
• The President of UOKiK obliged Wodociągi Zachodniopomorskie to change this type of practice.
• The Office has also published a guide describing how to resolve the most common problems in relations between water supply companies and consumers.

Wodociągi Zachodniopomorskie (West Pomeranian Waterworks) operates in 28 municipalities in the West Pomeranian voivodeship. The company demanded that customers bear the cost of repairing failures of water supply connections from the property boundary to the place where the connection to the water supply network is made. In practice, this could mean that in the event of a fault in a pipe located outside private property – e.g. under a pavement, road or green belt belonging to the municipality – the resident was charged for the repair work or had to repair the fault at their own expense. This also involved additional burdensome requirements, such as the need to obtain a permit to occupy the road lane for the duration of the repair. There have been cases where Wodociągi Zachodniopomorskie cut off the water supply to residents who did not pay for repairs or did not fix the fault themselves.

Meanwhile, according to the Supreme Court’s case law, the water supply company should bear the costs of repairing the connection outside the customer’s property. A request to remove a fault from water consumers may be considered an abuse of a dominant position by the supplier.

– I have obliged Wodociągi Zachodniopomorskie to change its practices and actions in accordance with the law and court rulings. First of all, the company will stop charging fees for repairing faults outside the boundaries of residents’ plots and other water consumers – says Tomasz Chróstny, President of UOKiK.

In addition to discontinuing the collection of the indicated fee, the company will also not pursue the claimed amounts for the repair of sections outside the property. Recipients will receive new invoices adjusted to PLN 0. Wodociągi Zachodniopomorskie will also announce its commitment and change in practices on its website. These parts of the commitment are to be fulfilled by the end of 2025, details in the decision of the President of UOKiK.

When does Wody Polskie (National Water Management Authority) have jurisdiction?

As of 2018, the regulator of the water and sewage market is the National Water Management Authority. The powers of this authority include approving tariffs for water supply and sewage collection applied by water supply companies, and resolving disputes between water supply and sewage companies and their customers.

UOKiK guide

UOKiK has prepared a special guide for consumers of water and sewage services. It discusses practical problems that water consumers may encounter and indicates the institution responsible for resolving them. Among the issues discussed are matters concerning the setting of rates for water supply and sewage collection, disputes over water bills, refusal to connect to the network, and the amount of fees for rainwater. This is required reading not only for residents, but also for water supply companies and municipalities that own these enterprises. The guide can be downloaded (in Polish) from the UOKiK website.

Inform UOKiK about competition restricting practices

We would like to remind you that UOKiK conducts a programme for obtaining information from anonymous whistleblowers. Do you wish to inform UOKiK about competition restricting practices? Visit https://uokik.whiblo.pl/ or scan the QR code below and use the simple form. The system we use guarantees complete anonymity, including from UOKiK itself.