Thames Water No Water: What to Do

First, make sure it really is Thames Water’s problem

Check four things at home before you report it, because the answer decides who pays. Run the cold kitchen tap. Look for frost on exposed pipes in cold weather. Check the inside stop valve, usually under the kitchen sink, is fully open by turning it gently anti-clockwise. Then ask the neighbours.

If water comes out of the kitchen tap but nowhere else, the mains supply is fine and the problem is your internal plumbing, often an empty loft tank or a stuck float valve. If the kitchen tap is dry but next door has water, the fault is usually on the supply pipe between the boundary stop tap and your house, which is yours, although a faulty outside stop tap or Thames Water’s own connection can also be to blame, and our guide to no water in the house when the neighbours have water walks through it.

If you and your neighbours are all dry, it is a network problem. Carry on below.

How to report no water to Thames Water

Check the problems map on the Thames Water website first. Search your postcode and it shows live incidents and planned work near you, often with an update on progress. If your street is already listed, there is no need to report it again unless the situation changes, for example water is now pouring out of the road, which is logged as a leak you can follow on Thames Water’s map of reported leaks.

If nothing is listed, report it. Thames Water takes supply problems through its website, a WhatsApp service that runs 24/7 and a 24-hour phone line printed on your bill. Give them the details a control room can act on:

• Your full address and postcode, and whether you are in a house or a flat
• When the water stopped, and whether it went suddenly or faded over a few hours
• Whether neighbours are affected, and roughly how many houses
• Anything you can see outside: water in the road, road works, a Thames Water van
• Whether anyone in the home is vulnerable, relies on water for medical equipment or has a baby

If the water company is not Thames Water for your street, reporting to them wastes time. Parts of outer London are supplied by Affinity Water, SES Water or Essex & Suffolk Water, even where Thames Water still handles the sewers. Your water bill names your supplier.

What to do at home while Thames Water fixes it

Close every tap you opened while checking. When the supply comes back it arrives at full pressure, and an open tap over a plugged sink is a common way for a flat to flood the one below.

If your hot water comes from a cylinder with an immersion heater, switch it off as a precaution until the water is back. A combi boiler needs mains flow to fire for hot water, so it will stop producing any and may show a flow or ignition fault, although the radiators usually keep working. Do not keep resetting it; once the water returns it should fire normally, and if it still shows a fault after a single reset, that is a separate boiler issue.

Save any water still in the loft tank for flushing. For drinking, use bottled water, or boil water from the tank only if you are sure the tank is covered and clean. On a large or long outage, water companies usually open bottled water stations and prioritise deliveries to customers on their Priority Services Register, so if someone in your home qualifies and you are not registered, ask to be added when you report.

What Thames Water owes you for a long outage

The Guaranteed Standards Scheme is not goodwill; it is set in law by the Water Supply and Sewerage Services (Customer Service Standards) Regulations 2008, with higher payments in force in England since July 2025. For English water companies, the key figures for a household are these:

• Unplanned interruption not restored within 12 hours: £50
• Each further full 12 hours without water: another £50
• Planned work lasting over four hours without at least 48 hours’ notice: £50
• Total payments for one incident are capped at twice your annual water supply charge

The company has to pay within 20 working days whether or not you claim, but check your next bill. If nothing appears, write to Thames Water quoting the Guaranteed Standards Scheme and the date and time your water went off and came back.

When Thames Water says the fault is on your side

If Thames Water checks and finds full pressure at your boundary, it will tell you the problem is on your private pipework. Responsibility splits at the boundary stop tap, usually under a small cover at the edge of the pavement or front garden. The pipe from the main up to that point is Thames Water’s. The supply pipe from there into the house, and everything inside, belongs to the owner, or to the landlord if you rent. The detail, including shared pipes in terraces and blocks, is in who owns the water pipe to your house.

The usual culprits on the private side are a stopcock that has seized or broken internally, a burst supply pipe under the front garden, a frozen pipe in an outside wall, and on older London terraces a lead or iron supply pipe that has finally furred up. A stopcock repair or a supply pipe repair is plumbing work you arrange yourself.

On a no water emergency call-out, the engineer tests the supply at the boundary, isolates what needs isolating, finds the fault and gets water running again, or makes the house safe and plans a larger repair. You pay the £60 call-out, and the repair price is agreed with you on site before any work starts.

When the water comes back on

Run the cold kitchen tap first, for a few minutes, before anything else. Air in the pipes can make taps spit and bang for a short while, and the water may look milky or brown. Milky water that clears from the bottom of the glass up is air. Brown or orange water is sediment stirred up in the main and should clear within a few minutes of running; if it does not, report it as a water quality problem. There is more on this in water back on but cloudy.

Once the cold runs clear, turn the immersion back on, check the boiler fires, and run each tap in turn to clear any air. If one tap stays weak or silent while others are fine, there may be an airlock in the pipes or debris caught in a tap or shower filter.