Water Leak on Your Property
Discussion
My sister has just had a knock on the door from Thames Water. Apparently there is a leak between her front door and the road and she has 6 weeks to sort it out. Fortunatley she lives in a flat and the guy downstairs would have to share the cost.
Does anyone have any experience of sorting this sort of thing out and what costs are involved? The distance from the front door to the pavement is about 2 - 3 metres.
Does anyone have any experience of sorting this sort of thing out and what costs are involved? The distance from the front door to the pavement is about 2 - 3 metres.
I'm sadly (through personal experience) an expert on this game.
First - find the water meter.
Second - find the stopcock inside the flat (ooeerrr missus etc.).
Third - turn off stopcock.
Fourth - watch the meter for 3 or so minutes. If it is still moving there's a leak between the meter (usually placed at the edge of your property) and the stopcock.
This bit of pipe is your responsibility.
To fix it can be expensive.
If the meter stops - turn off all water taps and appliances, open the stopcock and look at the meter again. If it's moving you may have a leaking or dripping valve somewhere in the house. Get a plumber round to check.
If you do have a leak in the service pipe you can ring your house insurance and ask if you are covered.
If you have emergency home cover that may cover repair - ask them.
If you're not covered talk to your water company. Some will do 2 free repairs in 3 years. Others will try to get you to pay for the lot - several hundred quid usually (or more).
A chat with Ofwat (if they still exist) may help.
Keep us informed.
Oh and the threatening 'notification of a leak' form is a statutary form that doesn't mean anything so don't panic.
First - find the water meter.
Second - find the stopcock inside the flat (ooeerrr missus etc.).
Third - turn off stopcock.
Fourth - watch the meter for 3 or so minutes. If it is still moving there's a leak between the meter (usually placed at the edge of your property) and the stopcock.
This bit of pipe is your responsibility.
To fix it can be expensive.
If the meter stops - turn off all water taps and appliances, open the stopcock and look at the meter again. If it's moving you may have a leaking or dripping valve somewhere in the house. Get a plumber round to check.
If you do have a leak in the service pipe you can ring your house insurance and ask if you are covered.
If you have emergency home cover that may cover repair - ask them.
If you're not covered talk to your water company. Some will do 2 free repairs in 3 years. Others will try to get you to pay for the lot - several hundred quid usually (or more).
A chat with Ofwat (if they still exist) may help.
Keep us informed.
Oh and the threatening 'notification of a leak' form is a statutary form that doesn't mean anything so don't panic.
Edited by rfisher on Monday 17th January 17:33
i had something similar last year. don't have a meter though. noticed a damp patch at the beginning of my drive, then a damp patch at the foot of my garage.. then damp patches in the garage. called out south east water who came out and told me i had a leak under my garage. lots of letters etc about fixing the leak or this / that and the other will happen. did not even listen to me about the damp patch at the edge of pavement and my drive.
luckly for me my father works in construction, got some work friends round plumbers and civil engineers round to rip up my front drive 8 meters from pavement to garage door. couple of hours in..located the main stop cock under pavement from under my drive. turned it off. gas pipe runs 20cm near the main stock cock. notice it is wet and water is running along it. don't think to much about it. carry on digging the deep trench to lay the new water pipe. another hour of so gone and the trench is done. block paving looks terrible.
one of fathers engineers peers down to have a look at the water pipe under the pavement. notices the ground very wet. we dig alittle more to see if can see the problem. 30mins later we notice the water supply pipe to the stop cock is leaking quite alot.. we take lots of video evidence/photos etc. garage/drive is mess. decide to lay new pipe as everything was in place. plumber makes the connection. I phone water company who tell me the problem is mine and water engineers have detected no leak at the stopcock.. I drop into conversation the 2 chartered engineers and 2 plumbers on site. 1 hr later water company come down to investigate. still couldn't care, but agree that this needs to be fixed and will scheduled in the next 2 weeks. I tell them in some colourful language that this leak needs to be fixed today. they agree.
I wrote many letters to the water company, never got a reply about the whole mess.ofwat (useless comes to mind) said they will investigate.. never heard a thing.
NST
luckly for me my father works in construction, got some work friends round plumbers and civil engineers round to rip up my front drive 8 meters from pavement to garage door. couple of hours in..located the main stop cock under pavement from under my drive. turned it off. gas pipe runs 20cm near the main stock cock. notice it is wet and water is running along it. don't think to much about it. carry on digging the deep trench to lay the new water pipe. another hour of so gone and the trench is done. block paving looks terrible.
one of fathers engineers peers down to have a look at the water pipe under the pavement. notices the ground very wet. we dig alittle more to see if can see the problem. 30mins later we notice the water supply pipe to the stop cock is leaking quite alot.. we take lots of video evidence/photos etc. garage/drive is mess. decide to lay new pipe as everything was in place. plumber makes the connection. I phone water company who tell me the problem is mine and water engineers have detected no leak at the stopcock.. I drop into conversation the 2 chartered engineers and 2 plumbers on site. 1 hr later water company come down to investigate. still couldn't care, but agree that this needs to be fixed and will scheduled in the next 2 weeks. I tell them in some colourful language that this leak needs to be fixed today. they agree.
I wrote many letters to the water company, never got a reply about the whole mess.ofwat (useless comes to mind) said they will investigate.. never heard a thing.
NST
Is the supply to the flats on a meter?
Echoing, but slightly amending what RFisher said above, turn things off and check if the meter still shows a flow. The leak may not be her responsibility even if on "her" side of the meter.
I had exactly this on my first place, Severn Trent estimated I was losing a swimming pool's worth of water a week - they couldn't understand why my house hadn't fallen into a hole of washed out footings.
It turned out that the water pipe to the house hadn't been cut off square when attached to the meter and had blown off under pressure. The water had then bored its way to the main storm drain under the drive/road - hence why the house wasn't affected.
The good news is that this cost me nothing - Severn Trent said that any connections to the meter (either supply or house side) were their responsibility so they dug it up, cut the pipe square, reattached, tested, backfilled, and re tarmaced my drive at no cost to me whatsoever.
Worth checking!
Steve
Echoing, but slightly amending what RFisher said above, turn things off and check if the meter still shows a flow. The leak may not be her responsibility even if on "her" side of the meter.
I had exactly this on my first place, Severn Trent estimated I was losing a swimming pool's worth of water a week - they couldn't understand why my house hadn't fallen into a hole of washed out footings.
It turned out that the water pipe to the house hadn't been cut off square when attached to the meter and had blown off under pressure. The water had then bored its way to the main storm drain under the drive/road - hence why the house wasn't affected.
The good news is that this cost me nothing - Severn Trent said that any connections to the meter (either supply or house side) were their responsibility so they dug it up, cut the pipe square, reattached, tested, backfilled, and re tarmaced my drive at no cost to me whatsoever.
Worth checking!
Steve
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