Apparently flat leaking 800ltrs a day!!

LeagueOfWolf

I just rented out my tiny studio flat and tenant is saying the smart metre reading is insane racking it upto 800ltrs a day....
And on days she's not been at home...200ltrs where she's not even used any of the water. On average the metre says she is using 600ltrs a day. This is 2nd floor studio flat in an old building from the 60-80s. 

I have lived in apartment myself for 5 years and always paid between £250-350 pa. But i have not lived in apartment for over a year since I installed this Smart Metre and thus completely confused at the numbers. How an earth could it be leaking this much water per day!!! 😳 

We've had cases of rats before which I'm a bit concerned they could have somehow gnawed through piping but what confuses me is where this 800ltr is leaking to as it is on 2nd floor in-between other flats.

Since it would be a water fountain in neighbours home. For example when the person above me's washing machine pipe disconnected my kitchen ceiling was all damp and the guy down below me had water dripping everywhere from the same overflow....this was temporary and all of us was affected despite being from 3rd floor.  Yet leaking 600ltrs a day I've heard nothing from downstairs.

Ive had 3 ppl come inspect. Initially plumbers who found nothing but today i've just had leak inspector specialist from the recommended watersafe website come in and they found small minor leaks in  toilet like actual tiny droplets and some cold damp pipes in kitchen but nothing that warrants this insane amount of water loss... even after an hour looking around building etc they couldnt find anything drastic. They said its possible might need to remove walls to look which is extremely expensive and conplicated to do.

I am just thinkinh both sides of walls to flat are hollow dry walls so if leak has been happening for a while they would be damp into neighbours / so would downstairs as there's no were else for water to go.

I can't imagine it leaking between the walls or under on my flooring. If any thing it's flowing somewhere else away from the flats. But they have not discovered where and said we should fix small leaks first before we figure out the main leak  

I feel like the issue is with thames water as these issues did not appear until they installed this Smart meter especially as it is ticking to 200ltrs when no water is being used.  But maybe they were undetected before who knows.

Has anyone had this issue before? 

HampshireH

Have you called the water board?

Turn the water off inside at the stop tap. Does the meter still spin?

Can you turn it off outside? Does the meter still spin?

The water board are usually responsible up to the point of entry to the building then it becomes a owner issue.

It's unlikely you will have a leak in the building as as you say things would be very wet.

More likely a leak on the incoming pipe or the meter sounds faulty.

You have confirmed they are reading the correct meter?

Green_hopeful

You need to do a bit of investigating to see if you can find where, if anywhere, you have a leak. 800 litres is 8 baths full. It seemed unlikely that it is a leak in the flat. 

You could turn off the water on the stop tap at the meter and then see if the meter reads consumption which would indicate a meter fault. You could turn off the stop tap in the flat (with the stop tap next to the meter on). It’s probably under the kitchen sink but might be near where the water pipe comes in to the flat. If you have usage then either you have a leak or perhaps a misconnection. Your meter might be measuring more than one flats’ usage. 

My smart meter app lets me look at hourly usage which normally shows gaps in usage when we are out or asleep. If you have constant usage then again it looks like a fault or a leak. Your water company may be able to help if their app doesn’t give regular readings. 

If you have a leak and fix it, the water company should give a leakage allowance and refund the excess charges. That might be for your tenants benefit but worth having. 

There will be advice on your water company’s website. I found our water company’s advice useful when we had a leak reading earlier this year. I think ours was an intermittent fault with a loo or something but we were only losing 24 litres a day. Eventually it just stopped thank goodness. 

Spoonie_Turtle

I don't know what water meters look like, but has the tenant sent you a photo of any readings?  I just wonder if maybe they're reading an energy meter instead of the water meter - it has certainly happened the other way round before, people giving water meter readings to their energy companies, so could be something just to check and rule out.

Jonboy_1984

Where is the meter in relationship to the flat? In my old block they were on the car park in front of the block and then ran under the building to the individual flats. 

The upstairs flats had an in intermediate stop-tap at the point the pipes changed from horizontal to vertical on the ground floor, hidden behind a panel in the communal staircase.This would have given the ground floor flats a 10 metre run of pipe work between the meter and internal stop-tap and at least double that for the first floor flats….most of this would have been outside the flat itself.

EssexHebridean

Spoonie_Turtle said:

I don't know what water meters look like, but has the tenant sent you a photo of any readings?  I just wonder if maybe they're reading an energy meter instead of the water meter - it has certainly happened the other way round before, people giving water meter readings to their energy companies, so could be something just to check and rule out.

Also - are they reading the correct numbers? On ours you only give the first X number of digits - a bit like not giving thr ones after the decimal point on an energy meter. 

Qyburn

LeagueOfWolf said:

I just rented out my tiny studio flat and tenant is saying the smart metre reading is insane racking it upto 800ltrs a day....
And on days she's not been at home...200ltrs where she's not even used any of the water. On average the metre says she is using 600ltrs a day. 

where this 800ltr is leaking to as it is on 2nd floor in-between other flats.

Yet leaking 600ltrs a day I've heard nothing from downstairs.

Smart meter especially as it is ticking to 200ltrs when no water is being used. 

The figures aren't really consistent. 200l/day when she's away suggests a leak of 200l/day. Then she's home she's using 400l (or causing that use), which is high but not impossible, plus the 200l. 200l/day is less than 150ml per minute so not a huge amount to be dispersed.

LeagueOfWolf

Hey, 
So the meter is outside in between carpark and block. The bathroom is by the front of the building overlooking carpark. 
But the stopcock goes past the bathroom and to the kitchen! There's two Stopcock in kitchen...the plumbers said as itngoes past bathroom underground into kitchen it could be that part it is leaking. Underground or in the voids of the brick. I don't think it's there since walls paper thin and downstairs would be damp or wet dripping which theyre not. They also not so keen on removing walls as my bathroom kitchen are both fully fitted tiled walls etc especially as it might not be there....and logic points to water leak not being internal.

So yeh best bet is that the water is leaking from meter connect to flat infront underground somewhere. They're fixing small minor leaks in flat first and then monitor. Then most likely dig up front yard to check pipes. 

If it's near water pipe I am wondering if it's a Thames Water issue 🤔 

I also addednthe smart water meter... screen shot she sent me.