RESOLVED - Thames Water letter - "You may have a water leak" ??

makara

RESOLVED -

I finally called Thames Water today - and when I told them I had tried booking an appointment using the Q.R. code on the letter but couldn't - and hence was calling instead - the operator told me the reason I couldn't was because the leak had ALREADY been fixed on February 16th

When I mentioned the letter was dated February 17th she said it may just have been a delay

So all's well that ends well

I did ask her to put me through to the billing department to check if we had been billed excessively for THEIR leak - but when she did the overseas operator didn't seem to be able to hear me - and I hung up

I am ASSUMING we won't have been unfairly billed - let's see...

++++++++


I don't think we ever agreed to a smart meter (unless TW decided they were mandatory?) - but got a letter stating -

"Your smart meter alerted TW that around 48 litres of water per hour is flowing trough our meter - and this usually means a leak"

It also says some stuff about if the water leak is on the inside of our property it's our responsibility to fix it

And it gives deadlines to get it fixed within 6 weeks / or if done within 4 weeks it will help qualify us for a leak allowance to claim back the difference

Lastly it tells us to contact them if we can't detect a leak - and they will send a technician around

I googled to see if others have had similar - and it seems MOST posters have written that the fault was with the TW smart meter - not a leak / and if there was a leak it was OUTSIDE the house boundary

What should I do?  Phone TW as suggested?

We do have a bathroom sink tap that leaks at a small constant rate - which we will get round to replacing in summer as our entire bathroom needs to be re-made - but could that lead to 48 litres per hour?

Edit - interesting - this guy was told he was using 5000 litres per day - not far off our 4000 estimate -

https://www.thesun.co.uk/money/18335940/thames-water-charge-bill-home/

GingerTim

Does your bill show any unusual usage levels? First thing I would do is log into my account and see if there's anything there.

makara

GingerTim said:

Does your bill show any unusual usage levels? First thing I would do is log into my account and see if there's anything there.

Many thanks - it seems I had set up an online account but not fully activated it

It states - 

Average Daily Usage

4191.64 Litres

I googled - and for a 3 people family it states the average use is about 400 litres per day (well 370)

I know we are high water users - but not ten times as high!

No car washing or water gardening going on as it's still not summer

fatbelly

That does sound like there's a leak somewhere.

Take up their offer of a technician visit.

makara

fatbelly said:

That does sound like there's a leak somewhere.

Take up their offer of a technician visit.

Many thanks - I will call them tomorrow

elsien

If there’s a possibility of a leak, and it could be underground in between the mains and inside the boundary of your house, then I would certainly suggest accepting their offer to find someone to trace it.

I did have a leak on a private pipe that connected four terraces and was our responsibility and not that of the water company. They had the power to insist on a repair and to bill us for it. 

Finding someone willing and qualified to do the work was cheaper than the water company going ahead. 

For  various reasons, mainly one part of the water company not knowing what the other part was doing, they ended up doing the repair free of charge. Otherwise it would’ve cost us about £1800 each and that was a good few years ago now.

makara

elsien said:

If there’s a possibility of a leak, and it could be underground in between the mains and inside the boundary of your house, then I would certainly suggest accepting their offer to find someone to trace it.

I did have a leak on a private pipe that connected four terraces and was our responsibility and not that of the water company. They had the power to insist on a repair and to bill us for it. 

Finding someone willing and qualified to do the work was cheaper than the water company going ahead. 

For  various reasons, mainly one part of the water company not knowing what the other part was doing, they ended up doing the repair free of charge. Otherwise it would’ve cost us about £1800 each and that was a good few years ago now.

Many thanks 

Since our house (particularly the bathroom upstairs and kitchen below it) are in dire need of repair - and we need to get a second bathroom built downstairs as my elderly mother struggles to climb the stairs - I am wondering if we should get whoever does the work for us to check the pipes, but...as per your advice / and as per the letter stating Thames Water will check it for FREE (and I don't envisage us getting in our builders until at least June...) - I will speak to TW to organise a free Technician visit

P.S. Glad you got it done FOC - although I am not clear on whether you used a third party plumber / or was it the water company who did it?

brook_heather

Yes you have a leak if your daily usage is 4000L - I had a similar leak last year when a new TW smart water meter was fitted and it showed the constant hourly usage - long story but it turns out I had an outside lead water pipe still and that had started leaking slowly a few years before.  It was only when the new meter was fitted that it was obviously a leak and not just high water usage.  I spent £600 on tracing the leak which didn't find the problem due to the depth of the pipe so in the end I paid around another £1K to have a new plastic mains water pipe fitted to the boundary.

After this was installed there was still a small leak showing which was probably on the TW side where the lead pipe went under the pavement to the meter.  Once the new plastic pipe was connected all the way to the meter there was no more leaking.  TW won't charge you for the excess water usage if you have it fixed by their timescales otherwise you will be paying a significant water bill.

makara

brook_heather said:

Yes you have a leak if your daily usage is 4000L - I had a similar leak last year when a new TW smart water meter was fitted and it showed the constant hourly usage

Many thanks - I guess this is the (main) reason they are insisting on Smart Meters 

elsien

makara said:

elsien said:

If there’s a possibility of a leak, and it could be underground in between the mains and inside the boundary of your house, then I would certainly suggest accepting their offer to find someone to trace it.

I did have a leak on a private pipe that connected four terraces and was our responsibility and not that of the water company. They had the power to insist on a repair and to bill us for it. 

Finding someone willing and qualified to do the work was cheaper than the water company going ahead. 

For  various reasons, mainly one part of the water company not knowing what the other part was doing, they ended up doing the repair free of charge. Otherwise it would’ve cost us about £1800 each and that was a good few years ago now.

Many thanks 

Since our house (particularly the bathroom upstairs and kitchen below it) are in dire need of repair - and we need to get a second bathroom built downstairs as my elderly mother struggles to climb the stairs - I am wondering if we should get whoever does the work for us to check the pipes, but...as per your advice / and as per the letter stating Thames Water will check it for FREE (and I don't envisage us getting in our builders until at least June...) - I will speak to TW to organise a free Technician visit

P.S. Glad you got it done FOC - although I am not clear on whether you used a third party plumber / or was it the water company who did it?

Water company.
 They give one go at fixing it for free, or they used to,but they tried twice and the whole pipe was knackered. 
However while one branch was sending  letters giving us ultimatums, the other just turned up to dig up the backyard and replace the whole lot. For nothing. 

makara

elsien said:

Water company.
 They give one go at fixing it for free, or they used to,but they tried twice and the whole pipe was knackered. 
However while one branch was sending  letters giving us ultimatums, the other just turned up to dig up the backyard and replace the whole lot. For nothing. 

THAT is a RESULT - well done - and nice bit of self sabotage from the water company (probably deserved!)