Water Industry Competition Act 2006

A small retail customer who is the owner of premises to which water or sewerage services are provided by means of a regulated scheme is taken to have entered into a contract for the services with the following persons on the terms and conditions set out in the regulations and for the standard contract charges of the licensee (the deemed customer contract)—

the registered operator of the infrastructure that connects the scheme to the premises, and

the registered retailer for that infrastructure.

However, a deemed customer contract is not taken to have been entered into if the connection of the premises to the scheme is an unauthorised connection.

A connection is an unauthorised connection if it was not authorised by the registered operator of the infrastructure at or before the time of connection.

The registered operator of infrastructure may subsequently approve a connection that was unauthorised at the time of connection and the connection then ceases to be an unauthorised connection.

A deemed customer contract is not taken to have been entered into to the extent that it would conflict with an order in force under section 83.

The regulations may make provision for or about the following—

requiring the registered operator of infrastructure that connects a scheme to premises to notify the registered retailer for the infrastructure when the premises are connected to the scheme,

exempting a registered operator or registered retailer, or a class of registered operators or registered retailers, conditionally or unconditionally, from the operation of this section,

enabling IPART to modify or exclude the application of the deemed customer contract for a registered operator or registered retailer, or a class of registered operators or registered retailers, generally or in specified circumstances,

fees for making applications for exemptions from the operation of this section.