Water firms sent bailiffs to tens of thousands of homes for debts under £1,000
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<p>Most recorded visits are for smaller debts, data from England and Wales suggests, though method of recovery is a postcode lottery</p><p>Tens of thousands of people a year have bailiffs sent to their homes by water companies in England and Wales, data shows.</p><p>Many thousands of these visits by debt collectors were for sums worth under £1,000, according to the data released by the House of Commons environment, food and rural affairs (Efra) committee. Bailiffs a
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Water firms sent bailiffs to tens of thousands of homes for debts under £1,000 Most recorded visits are for smaller debts, data from England and Wales suggests, though method of recovery is a postcode lottery Tens of thousands of people a year have bailiffs sent to their homes by water companies in England and Wales, data shows. Many thousands of these visits by debt collectors were for sums worth under £1,000, according to the data released by the House of Commons environment, food and rural affairs committee. Bailiffs are debt collectors instructed by a court, who can seize items from those in debt, including electrical items, jewellery or vehicles. It is a postcode lottery as to whether a water company would send a bailiff to a person’s home to recoup unpaid bills. While Wessex Water has not used bailiffs in 10 years, the water companies that made the most use of bailiffs in 2025 – adjusted for population – were South West Water, Southern Water and Yorkshire Water. In the financial year 2016-17, Yorkshire Water sent bailiffs to customers’ homes 405 times, but in 2024-25 there were 6,124 bailiff visits. There were also high peaks of overall usage by some companies. In 2022 Severn Trent instructed bailiffs 11,574 times, and in 2019 Southern Water instructed 15,707 bailiffs. The criteria for sending debt collectors to people’s homes varies between water companies. For example, Northumbrian Water told the committee it did not send bailiffs to homes where residents were known to be in receipt of means-tested benefits, whereas Southern Water said these customers were eligible for litigation. Severn Trent also does not perform checks on whether someone is in receipt of means-tested benefits before instructing a bailiff. Southern does have some limits on who it will pursue. It said that if a customer is suffering from dementia or a critical illness, they will not be pursued for a debt via litigation. The use of bailiffs by water companies that had been found to have brok...
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