Affinity Water Moving Home — How to Open, Transfer or Close Your Account

Affinity Water moving home: the 30-day rule explained

You should tell Affinity Water about a move no more than 30 days before your moving date — earlier risks the change being missed in the queue, later means you can be billed for water used by the new occupants. The fastest channel is the Moving Home form on affinitywater.co.uk inside the My Account portal; the phone line on 0345 357 2401 covers the same task during opening hours (Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm, Saturday 8am to 2pm).

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. Whenever you arrive in that area, leave it or change address inside it, you must notify Affinity Water to keep the supply uninterrupted and avoid being charged for someone else's water. Calls go through the standard customer service team — there is no separate "moving home" department.

Unlike energy or broadband, domestic water in England is not open to competition: the supplier is fixed by the postcode of the property. You cannot pick a cheaper company when you move — the only thing in your hands is closing the old account on time and opening the new one promptly. Our UK water suppliers directory lists the regional monopoly for every English postcode if you need to identify your next supplier before the move, and the dedicated switch water supplier guide explains why household competition is not on the table.

What information you need to give Affinity Water

Whether you handle the move online or by phone, the conversation is short once you have the right information to hand. The single biggest cause of delay and estimated billing is calling without a closing meter reading — that one figure decides whether your final bill is based on reality or on Affinity Water's projection. Spend five minutes gathering the items below before you log in or dial.

The online form and the call handlers ask for the same set of details, so the checklist below works either way. If you have a smart water meter, opening and closing readings are sent automatically and the data fields are pre-filled, but it is worth photographing the dial anyway in case of a transmission gap on the day.

• Your current Affinity Water account number, printed at the top of any recent bill or direct-debit confirmation letter ;
• The full address and postcode of the property you are leaving ;
• The full address and postcode of the property you are moving into ;
• Your move-out date (the day you hand back the keys) and move-in date ;
• A closing meter reading from the old property if it is metered ;
• An opening meter reading from the new property if it is metered ;
• A forwarding address and email for the final bill ;
• The name of the new occupier moving into the old property if you know it.

If the meter is in an outside chamber under a manhole cover and you cannot lift it safely on the day, take a photograph with a timestamp as soon as it is accessible and submit it through the My Account portal quoting your move date. Affinity Water will backdate the closing bill to that reading rather than estimate. Our step-by-step water meter reading guide walks through which digits to copy and which to ignore.

How to tell Affinity Water: online vs phone

Affinity Water supports three notification channels for a move — the My Account portal, the standalone Moving Home form (no login needed) and the phone line on 0345 357 2401. All three handle the same task, and Affinity Water does not penalise any one over the others. The choice comes down to how comfortable you are filling in a form versus speaking to an advisor, and how complex your situation is.

For straightforward moves — a single occupier, one meter, a clear move date — the online route is almost always faster. For anything with a complication, such as a joint account split between two new addresses, a probate sale, a missing meter or a LIFT discount to transfer, ringing the moving home team is worth the queue.

Full opening hours and the digital channels for every Affinity Water team — emergencies, complaints, Priority Services, Payment Assistance — are listed on our dedicated Affinity Water contact number guide.

Moving inside the Affinity Water area: account transfer

If both your old and new properties sit inside the Affinity Water service area, Affinity Water transfers your existing account rather than closing it: the account number stays the same, the direct debit mandate is reused, and you simply receive your next bill at the new address. There is no closing bill and no opening bill, just a single statement reconciling the closing reading at the old property and the opening reading at the new one.

The first bill after a move is the one to scrutinise. The clean-water unit rate and standing charge are set at company level and should be identical at the new address, but the wastewater portion may change if you cross from one sewerage region to another — for example, moving from a Thames Water postcode in Watford to an Anglian Water postcode in Stevenage will swap the sewerage line on your bill, even though Affinity Water continues to bill you for both.

If the new property is metered and the old one was not (or vice versa), the bill format will look different even though the supplier is the same. Households with fewer occupants than bedrooms almost always pay less on a meter than on rateable value — Affinity Water offers a free meter installation on request, with a 24-month switch-back window if metering ends up costing you more than rateable charges did. The full economics are covered in our should I get a water meter? guide.

Moving into the Affinity Water area: opening an account

If you are moving into the Affinity Water region for the first time, you need to open a fresh account in your name. Affinity Water will eventually pick up the change of occupier automatically through council tax data, but registering yourself in the first week is faster, prevents bills being addressed to "the occupier" and stops the property drifting into the "no known occupier" state that triggers backdated bills months later. If your previous home was supplied by a different water company, contact that company separately to close the old account — Affinity Water cannot do it for you.

You can open the account up to 30 days before your move-in date through the Moving Home form on affinitywater.co.uk or by calling 0345 357 2401. Early registration means the account is live from day one, so the first bill matches the actual water you have used and Affinity Water does not have to estimate. The Tendring peninsula end of the supply area, where water hardness and bill levels are different from the rest of the network, is registered through the same line.

On moving day the two things that matter most are the meter and who is billed for what:

• Take an opening meter reading on the day you collect the keys if the property has a water meter ; photograph the dial with a timestamp for proof.
• Confirm with Affinity Water that the first bill reflects only your consumption from the move-in date onwards ; any usage before that is the previous occupier's responsibility.
• If the property is unmetered, the bill is based on the property's rateable value — the assessed worth set in March 1990, still used as the legal basis for unmetered water charges in England and Wales.

Affinity Water offers a free meter installation to any household that asks for one, and most homes with fewer occupants than bedrooms end up paying less once metered. The full economics of metered versus rateable-value charging are covered in our water meter guide and UK water rates guide.

Leaving the Affinity Water area: closing the account

If your new home is outside the Affinity Water region, you need to close your Affinity account and open a new one with the regional supplier that covers your destination postcode. Affinity Water will issue a closing bill based on the final meter reading (or rateable value for an unmetered property), sent to the forwarding address you provided. The closing bill arrives within a few weeks of your move-out date and is the only time you should consider stopping the direct debit — and only once it has been paid in full.

Notify the moving home team up to 30 days before your departure, take the final meter reading on the day you leave and pass it to Affinity Water the same day. If you are in credit on your direct debit, Affinity Water refunds the balance to the bank account the mandate was set up on, usually within two billing cycles. If you owe money, the closing bill is payable in one instalment unless you set up a payment plan in advance through the Affinity Water bill payment team.

Your new water supplier depends entirely on the destination postcode — Affinity Water's neighbours include Thames Water, Anglian Water, Southern Water, South East Water and Cambridge Water. Use the postcode checker on the Consumer Council for Water website to confirm who serves your new address before the moving van arrives.

Your wastewater supplier when moving in the Affinity Water area

Affinity Water is a water-only company, which means clean drinking water comes from Affinity but the sewerage line on your bill is collected on behalf of a separate wastewater supplier. The wastewater company is set by postcode too, so a move within the Affinity Water area can leave the clean-water supplier unchanged while still swapping the sewerage line on your bill — something many movers overlook when comparing the first post-move statement against the last one at the old address.

You do not need to ring the wastewater supplier yourself to set up the sewerage account; Affinity Water passes the change of occupier through automatically and you continue to receive one combined bill. The only reason to dial the sewerage company directly is for a drainage emergency — blocked sewer, foul smell, sewage backing up indoors — none of which Affinity Water can dispatch an engineer for.

Source: published wastewater supplier contact details, verified June 2026. Check the "sewerage" line on your most recent Affinity Water bill to confirm which sewerage company serves your postcode.

Renters, students and joint tenancies

In rented accommodation, who pays the Affinity Water bill is set by the tenancy agreement, not by whose name is on the door. The default assumption in most assured shorthold tenancies (ASTs) in England is that the tenant is responsible for water, but landlords can — and in HMOs often do — keep billing in their own name and either include water in the rent or recharge it monthly. Always check the utilities clause of the tenancy agreement before opening an account, and ask the landlord or letting agent for confirmation in writing if it is ambiguous.

If you are responsible for the water bill, open the account in your name on the day the tenancy starts using the Moving Home form on affinitywater.co.uk or by calling 0345 357 2401. Joint tenants should add every named tenant to the account at registration — Affinity Water allows multiple named account holders so any one of you can submit a meter reading, query a bill or set up a direct debit without breaching data-protection rules.

When a joint tenancy ends mid-bill — for example one housemate leaves and a new one takes their room — call Affinity Water on 0345 357 2401 to update the names on the account. A new account is only needed when every named tenant changes (a full tenancy turnover), in which case the old tenancy is closed with a final meter reading and a new tenancy opens immediately afterwards.

Students moving into a shared house

Students moving into private rented accommodation in Watford, St Albans, Luton, Hemel Hempstead or any other Affinity Water town should check who is responsible for water before setting up anything. In many student houses water is either included in the rent or the landlord pays Affinity Water directly — in which case there is nothing to do at all. If water is not included, register the account online or by phone in the first week of the tenancy, choose monthly direct debit (the cheapest option, with no late fees) and split the bill informally between housemates.

Landlords, void periods and empty properties

Landlords with rental properties in the Affinity Water area can register their portfolio on Landlord TAP, a free national tenant-change notification service used by most UK water companies including Affinity Water. Once registered, every change of tenancy only needs to be reported once and is forwarded to Affinity automatically — saving the landlord from a phone call each time a tenant moves in or out. Landlords who prefer to pay water bills directly (for example in all-inclusive rentals or HMOs) can manage up to 30 properties under a single Affinity Water account, which simplifies reconciliation compared to running one account per property.

If you own a second home, a holiday let or a rental property kept empty between tenants, you still pay a charge to Affinity Water for as long as the supply is connected. Affinity Water can apply a void period to a genuinely empty property in some cases — typically a discount on the standing charge while the property is unoccupied — but you need to ask for it: it is never applied automatically. Call 0345 357 2401 with the void start date and the address.

Moving into a long-empty property

If the property has been empty for months — for example a probate sale or a repossession — it is worth checking the water is actually running before you unpack. Affinity Water may have capped the supply for a long-term void, and discovering it on a Sunday evening is not ideal.

1. Locate the internal stop tap, usually under the kitchen sink — turn it anti-clockwise to allow the flow ; it should turn easily, do not force it ;
2. Run the kitchen cold tap for a minute or two to clear any stagnant water from the internal pipework ;
3. If there is still no water, Affinity Water may have disconnected the supply at the boundary — ring the 24/7 emergency line on 0345 357 2407 to reactivate it, free of charge for an incoming occupier.

If you are leaving a property empty rather than moving into one, turn off the internal stop tap before you go to prevent waste and protect against burst pipes while no-one is there to notice them. Our no water in the house guide explains the diagnostic order before you ring, and which problems belong to Affinity Water versus a plumber.

Your final bill, LIFT and credit balances

Affinity Water operates as a regulated monopoly under licence from Ofwat, not as a competitive provider, which means no deposit is required when you open an account and there is no admin fee for the move itself. The only money Affinity Water will ask for is the first bill — sent twice a year by default, monthly if you set up a direct debit — and the closing bill if you are leaving the region.

The closing bill follows your final meter reading (or rateable value for an unmetered property) and is sent to the forwarding address you provided. If you are in credit on your direct debit when the account closes, Affinity Water refunds the balance to the same bank account the mandate was set up on, usually within two billing cycles — keep the UK account open until the refund clears, even if you are moving abroad.

If you are struggling to pay the closing bill or the opening bill at a new Affinity Water address, ring the free Payment Assistance Helpline on 0800 697 982 before the due date. The helpline covers every Affinity Water support scheme — LIFT, WaterSure, Water Direct and short-term payment breaks — and Affinity will not chase the debt while a support application is being assessed.

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. The full payment-route picture, including which support scheme fits each circumstance, sits in our dedicated Affinity Water bill payment guide.

When the move goes wrong: complaints

For service issues directly linked to a house move — a missing final bill, an incorrect opening reading, a tenant charged for a previous occupier's water, a credit refund that never arrived — raise the complaint on 0345 357 2401 first and ask the advisor to log it as a formal complaint, not a general enquiry. Put it in writing the same day to the Hatfield head office or through the complaints form on affinitywater.co.uk, so you have a dated record of when the clock started.

Affinity Water follows the three-stage complaints process required of every English water company by Ofwat and 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. If the first response does not resolve the issue, ask for the complaint to be escalated to a team manager — Affinity Water has another working window to come back with a final answer, or you can request a deadlock letter confirming the case is closed at the company's end.

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 free of charge. For issues CCW cannot resolve, the final route is the Water Redress Scheme (WATRS), 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.

Affinity Water moving home FAQ

Useful Affinity Water and UK water guides

Before or after your move, these guides cover the rest of what you need to know about Affinity Water and the UK water market — phone numbers, bills, meters, the wastewater suppliers serving the Affinity area, and how Affinity compares to other regional suppliers.

• 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 contact number — every phone line, opening hours, callback numbers and the 24/7 emergency line on 0345 357 2407.
• Affinity Water bill payment — every payment route, direct debit set-up and support scheme explained in one place.
• All UK water suppliers — find the right water company for your new 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 for your closing and opening readings.
• How to set up a water bill — the registration steps that apply to any UK water supplier, including Affinity Water.