Affinity Water Contact Number — Phone, Emergency Line, LIFT & Complaints

Affinity Water contact numbers

The Affinity Water contact number depends on the kind of account you have and the reason for calling. Metered customers use 0345 357 2401; unmetered customers, who are billed on the property's rateable value, use 0345 357 2402. Both lines are staffed Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm and Saturday 8am to 2pm, and the 0345 prefix is charged at the standard UK landline rate — usually included in inclusive minutes bundles, so most callers pay nothing extra.

Affinity Water supplies drinking water to roughly 3.6 million people across parts of Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Surrey, Essex, north-west London and the Tendring peninsula. It is a water-only company, which means a separate wastewater supplier — Thames Water, Anglian Water or Southern Water depending on the postcode — handles your sewerage. You still receive a single combined bill from Affinity Water, but anything to do with blocked drains or sewer smells goes to the wastewater supplier, not Affinity.

If you only need to pay a bill or hear a current balance, you can skip the queue entirely by using the automated payment line on 0345 357 2400, which is open 24 hours a day and does not need an advisor. The full directory below covers every Affinity Water phone line currently published, with opening hours.

Source: Affinity Water published customer contact directory (affinitywater.co.uk), verified June 2026. The 0345 numbers cost the same as a normal landline call and are usually inclusive in mobile bundles; 0800 numbers are free from any UK landline or mobile.

Before you dial, have your Affinity Water account number, supply postcode and a recent bill to hand — identity checks go faster when you can quote them directly. To avoid the busiest periods Affinity Water itself recommends calling before 11am or after 2:30pm, which is when published wait times are shortest.

Metered or unmetered: which number do I call?

The Affinity Water account lines split in two because the underlying billing systems are different. A metered property has a physical water meter and is billed on the volume of water actually used; an unmetered property is billed on the home's historic rateable value, a fixed annual figure set by the local authority decades ago. The right line for you depends entirely on which of those two systems prints out your bill.

If you are not sure, the cleanest way to check is to look at the most recent bill: it will say in plain English whether charges are "measured" or "unmeasured". Most new-build homes and properties that have opted into metering fall under 0345 357 2401, while older properties still on the historic assessed-charge system should dial 0345 357 2402. Calling the right line first avoids being transferred between teams and shortens the overall waiting time.

Most low-occupancy homes and households where everyone is out during the day end up paying less on a meter than on a rateable-value bill. Our should I get a water meter? guide walks through the maths, and the how to read your water meter guide explains which digits to quote so the line gets the right reading first time.

Affinity Water emergency & leak line

The Affinity Water emergency number is 0345 357 2407, staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week including bank holidays. Use it for burst pipes, sudden loss of supply, discoloured or contaminated water, low pressure across a whole street, and any incident where a visible leak is wasting water on the public highway. You do not need to be an Affinity Water customer to report a problem on the public network.

As a rule, Affinity Water is responsible for the mains up to the outside stop tap on the boundary of your property. Everything beyond that point — the service pipe running under your garden, the cold-water tank in the loft, indoor plumbing, taps and fittings — is the homeowner's responsibility and a job for a qualified plumber, not the water company. Our guide on what to do when there's no water in the house walks through the diagnostic steps before you ring.

Sewer flooding is a different story. Because Affinity Water is a water-only company, sewer back-ups, blocked drains and foul-smelling drains all belong to your wastewater supplier — Thames Water for most postcodes in the supply area, Anglian Water in the east and Southern Water in the south. Calling Affinity for a sewer problem will simply add a transfer to the call, so check your bill for the wastewater company first and dial them directly.

Affinity Water and your wastewater supplier

Affinity Water is a water-only company, so the line on your bill for flushing the loo and draining the sink is collected on behalf of a separate wastewater supplier. Depending on where you live, that will be Thames Water, Anglian Water or Southern Water, and all three appear on your Affinity Water bill as a "sewerage" line item. The wastewater supplier — not Affinity — is the only party that can dispatch an engineer for drainage problems.

For a general billing or meter query you only need to contact Affinity Water. But if the issue is a blocked sewer, flooded drain or sewer smell, you will save time by ringing the wastewater supplier directly on one of the numbers below. All three lines are answered 24 hours a day, every day of the year, and are free to call.

Source: published wastewater supplier contact details. Check the "sewerage" line on your most recent Affinity Water bill to confirm which sewerage company serves your postcode before calling.

Advanced Care & Priority Services Register

The Advanced Care helpline on 0345 357 2406 signs Affinity Water customers up to the Priority Services Register (PSR), a free, opt-in scheme run by every UK water company under Ofwat rules. Once you are on the register Affinity Water keeps a flag against your account so it can do things like deliver bottled water during a supply interruption, send bills in large print or braille, and call before sending an engineer to the door.

You can register for PSR if you live alone with a disability, are over 60, have children under five, use medical equipment that needs running water (a dialysis machine, for example), or have a long-term health condition. Registration is free and has no effect on how much you pay for water — it simply adds a service flag on the account. Carers and family members can register on your behalf with your consent.

• Bottled water deliveries during planned and unplanned supply interruptions ;
• Bills and letters in large print, braille, audio or easy-read formats ;
• A password scheme so you can verify any Affinity Water visitor at the door ;
• Advance warning of planned maintenance that may affect supply ;
• Nominated-account access so a trusted relative can ring on your behalf without breaching data-protection rules.

If you are deaf or hard of hearing, you can reach any Affinity Water line through Relay UK by dialling 18001 before the number; British Sign Language users can also use the InterpretersLive! partnership linked from the accessibility page of affinitywater.co.uk, with no booking required.

Bill help: LIFT, WaterSure and Water Direct

If you are struggling to pay, the Payment Assistance Helpline on 0800 697 982 is the single number to ring — it is free from any UK landline or mobile and covers every Affinity Water support scheme. Most cases are resolved on the first call, either by switching the bill onto a lower social tariff or by setting up a manageable payment plan that prevents the account slipping into arrears.

The flagship social tariff is the LIFT scheme (Low Income Fixed Tariff), which caps the clean-water portion of the annual bill at £143.80 a year for eligible households. To qualify your household income (excluding benefits) must be under £19,995 a year, or you must receive a means-tested benefit such as Universal Credit, Pension Credit, Income-based Jobseeker's Allowance, Income-related Employment and Support Allowance or Income Support. Eligibility is checked against the supplied evidence and the discount runs for a fixed period before it has to be reapplied for.

A separate hardship grant for one-off costs — replacement white goods, boiler repairs, debt clearance — is run by the Affinity Water Trust Fund, an independent charity. Applications go through Auriga Services rather than the customer service line, and the helpline will sign-post you to the form if you ask. Our Affinity Water bill payment guide covers every payment route and support scheme in more detail.

Telling Affinity Water you are moving home

You should tell Affinity Water about a move at least two working days before your moving date — earlier risks the change being missed, later means you could be charged for water used by the new occupants. The fastest route is the Moving Home form on affinitywater.co.uk, but you can also handle it by phone on your usual account line (0345 357 2401 metered or 0345 357 2402 unmetered) during normal opening hours.

Have three pieces of information ready before you call: your new full address, your move-out date, and — if you are on a meter — a final reading taken on the day you leave. Without the closing reading, Affinity Water will estimate your final bill against historical use, which often produces a higher figure than the meter actually shows. If you are unsure how to read the dial, the water meter reading guide shows which black digits count.

If your new home is also in the Affinity Water area, your account simply follows you and no closing bill is issued. Moving outside the area means closure of your Affinity account and a new account with the regional company that serves your destination postcode — our UK water suppliers directory lists the contact number for every regional monopoly. The full process, with the timings for direct-debit and final-bill handling, is covered in our dedicated Affinity Water moving-home guide.

Affinity Water bereavement support

Closing or transferring the water account of someone who has passed away is handled by the standard customer service line on 0345 357 2401 (metered) or 0345 357 2402 (unmetered). Ask the advisor for the bereavement team — they will pause direct debits, take the closing meter reading, refund any credit balance to the estate and send a final account statement for probate purposes.

Before calling, gather the account number from the latest bill, the full name and address of the person who has died, the date of death and the contact details of the executor or next of kin. If the property is being kept on by a surviving partner, the account can be transferred into their name without a closing bill; if the property is being sold or cleared, Affinity Water needs a forwarding address for the final statement. Most cases are settled within two billing cycles.

Other ways to contact Affinity Water

If you would rather skip the phone queue, Affinity Water offers a full set of digital channels for non-urgent questions. Most routine tasks — submitting a meter reading, paying a bill, updating your details or setting up a direct debit — can be completed in the My Account portal on affinitywater.co.uk without speaking to anyone, and the portal is open 24 hours a day.

For account questions outside opening hours, the website also runs a WhatsApp service on 0797 101 3368 (text only — not monitored for emergencies) and a callback request form for non-urgent queries. Social channels work for short questions that do not involve account numbers; anything to do with a leak, burst pipe or no supply should always go through the 0345 357 2407 emergency line.

Affinity Water postal address

For written complaints, Subject Access Requests and any other formal correspondence, write to the head office in Hatfield. Always include your account number, the property postcode and a daytime phone number so the customer relations team can follow up — queries sent in by post are not handled in real time and tend to take longer than a phone call or email.

Affinity Water Ltd
Tamblin Way
Hatfield
Hertfordshire
AL10 9EZ

How to make a complaint to Affinity Water

Affinity Water follows the three-stage complaints process required of every English water company by Ofwat and the Consumer Council for Water. The company aims to send a substantive first reply within 10 working days, with an automatic £20 compensation payment credited to the account if that deadline is missed under the regulator's Guaranteed Standards Scheme.

Step 1 — Raise the issue. Ring 0345 357 2401 (metered) or 0345 357 2402 (unmetered), use the complaints form on affinitywater.co.uk, or write to the Hatfield head office (address above). Quote your account number, the property postcode and a clear description of what went wrong and the outcome you would like. Keep a note of the date you complained and the name of the advisor for stage 2.

Step 2 — Request a formal review. If the first response does not resolve the problem, ask in writing for the complaint to be escalated to a team manager. Affinity Water has another working window to come back with a final answer; if it does not, you can request a deadlock letter confirming the case is closed at the company's end.

Step 3 — Escalate externally. Once you hold a deadlock letter, or eight weeks have passed since you first complained, the Consumer Council for Water (CCW) will review your case for free on 0300 034 2222. For issues CCW cannot resolve, the final route is the Water Redress Scheme (WATRS) on 0207 520 3801, an independent adjudicator whose decision is legally binding on Affinity Water but not on you — you keep the right to reject it and go to court.

If the complaint is really about the size of the bill rather than the service you received, check first whether you are eligible for support. The WaterSure scheme guide explains the national cap available to low-income metered households, and the UK water rates guide shows how the bill is calculated so you can spot a charge that looks wrong.

Affinity Water contact FAQ

Useful Affinity Water and UK water guides

If you came looking for a phone number and now want to dig further, our other Affinity Water and UK water guides cover bills, metering, the schemes that cap charges for low-income households and the practical steps to take when something goes wrong. The starting point is the Affinity Water supplier overview, which links to the rest of the cluster.

• Affinity Water: tariffs, login and supply area — coverage area, charges and how the supplier ranks against the rest of the UK water market.
• Affinity Water bill payment — every payment route, direct debit set-up and support scheme explained in one place.
• Affinity Water moving home — how to close, transfer or open an account around a move date.
• Thames Water contact number — wastewater supplier for the majority of the Affinity Water area.
• All UK water suppliers — find the right water company for your postcode and compare contact numbers across the regional monopolies.
• UK water bills explained — average costs, metering rules and the regulators that set what you can be charged.
• How to read your water meter — step-by-step guide so you can quote the right figure when you ring the metered account line.
• WaterSure scheme — national cap on metered bills for low-income households with high essential use.
• No water in the house? What to check first — whose pipework is whose, and the order in which to ring Affinity Water versus a plumber.