Do Southern Water Still Repair Leaks Free?

daveoc22

Even more annoying then if Southern are charging and Yorkshire are not.

I would have expected every Company to follow what I thought was a legal requirement, but it would seem to be now down to individual Companies to decide if they want to provide a free service.

Ebe_Scrooge

EssexExile wrote: »

Then it depends on your view on the risk. £100 a year (after the first year) against a possible bill of a few hundred sometime. I've owned houses for over 40 years & never needed this service yet. That's a lot of £100 saved.

I have to agree with this. Yes, it's just like any other form of insurance - you don't have to have house contents insurance, for instance, but what if there's a fire and you lose everything ?



But like you, I think the chances of a water main needing a repair is on the low side, and if it does happen you'll probably save a lot of money in the long run by just paying for the repair ( or DIY-ing it ). But, it's each person's choice as to whether they prefer the peace of mind of an insurance policy.


But if your house insurance already covers you ( some do, some don't ) then it's a non-issue anyway.

Ebe_Scrooge

daveoc22 wrote: »

I would have expected every Company to follow what I thought was a legal requirement, but it would seem to be now down to individual Companies to decide if they want to provide a free service.

I'm pretty sure the legal requirement is that the water company is responsible up to the main stop-valve in the pavement, from there on it's the householder's responsibility. If some companies offer free repairs then that's an added bonus, they're going beyond what they're actually required to do.

daveoc22

Ebe_Scrooge wrote: »

I'm pretty sure the legal requirement is that the water company is responsible up to the main stop-valve in the pavement, from there on it's the householder's responsibility. If some companies offer free repairs then that's an added bonus, they're going beyond what they're actually required to do.

I'm afraid I don't have the links now but when I started this thread I googled and found old threads going back several years relating to Homeserve, water companies responsibilities and newspaper articles discussing both.

The newspaper articles talked about an agreement reached between the water companies and Ofwat several years ago. The companies wanted to do something and, as part of the agreement, Ofwat made them agree to provide free repairs to domestic customers leaks between the pavement and the front door.

Sorry I'm vague but it irks me that the water companies seem to be getting out of a requirement by stealth---or there again I may well have missed some new agreement that is now in force.

Anyway, as I'm covered under my house insurance it's no longer a problem.

Thanks for all the responses.

Grenage

EssexExile wrote: »

Then it depends on your view on the risk. £100 a year (after the first year) against a possible bill of a few hundred sometime. I've owned houses for over 40 years & never needed this service yet. That's a lot of £100 saved.

I'm with EssexExile on this; it seems to be becoming increasingly common for people to try and insure against everything - water supply, boilers, internal repairs, etc. If folks took the money they were spending on such things and put it in an emergency pot, they'd generally be a lot better off.