Water supply pipe insurance

Josquin

Hi

I am looking for some insurance to cover any possible future leaks and repair for my external water supply pipe- from water meter (near the road)  to my house.  I would want some insurance to cover for a company say,  like Water-link,  to come and detect a leak underground  and repair it-if it occured.

Can that be covered by house insurance or is a company like 'Homeserve' better?

Does anyone have some ideas/good experience in this area?

Thank you.

Peter999_2

You could try looking at your water companies website.   I am with yorkshire water and they provide insurance for leaks etc.

Yorkshire Water - Emergency home cover

Though, I did have a leak in January which was losing around 60 metres an hour of water and Yorkshire Water came out and fixed it for free (the leak was on my driveway.  They spent about an hour digging it up, fixing it and putting it back to how it was.  They did a really good job - but did make it clear that they wouldn't help if the leak was under the house.

luci

Peter999_2 said:

You could try looking at your water companies website.   I am with yorkshire water and they provide insurance for leaks etc.

Yorkshire Water - Emergency home cover

Though, I did have a leak in January which was losing around 60 metres an hour of water and Yorkshire Water came out and fixed it for free (the leak was on my driveway.  They spent about an hour digging it up, fixing it and putting it back to how it was.  They did a really good job - but did make it clear that they wouldn't help if the leak was under the house.

Scottish Water has something similar. They will repair a first leak between the toby on the street and the house wall free of charge (we don't have water meters). Subsequent leak repairs are at the home owner's cost. However, you may be offered a "subsidised repair" where the water company will cover 70% of the cost and the home owner pays 30%.

Check your buildings insurance. Leakage from underground pipes is one of the criteria I look for when I am buying home insurance.

Homeserve seem to be the most popular, but Google will find other home emergency providers. There was another post on a similar issue in the past few weeks by someone who is with Welsh Water.

Josquin

Hi Luci and Pete999

Thank you for your replies.

I should have added that my meter is about 80m away from the house, so I will have to make sure the insurance company are prepared to cover that distance in the case of a leak-both trace and repair will be needed. It's along a single track lane that is 'private'. The good thing is I know where the pipe is so finding it is not a problem.

Thank you

luci

Josquin said:

Hi Luci and Pete999

Thank you for your replies.

I should have added that my meter is about 80m away from the house, so I will have to make sure the insurance company are prepared to cover that distance in the case of a leak-both trace and repair will be needed. It's along a single track lane that is 'private'. The good thing is I know where the pipe is so finding it is not a problem.

Thank you

I don’t think the length of the pipe is an issue. The contractor has the ability to isolate where a leak is without digging up the whole length. They usually use what is called a “listening stick” in the first instance.

We’ve had 3 leaks in the front garden over the past 5 years, due to the age of the mains pipe. The first two were repaired by the water company. However, after the 3rd one, we were told that we needed to replace the whole pipe at our own cost.

I had intended asking for, and paying for, an entire new pipe anyway, to prevent any further problems. As a matter of principle, I argued that they shouldn’t be able to dictate to me what I did on my own property. I was told that we had to do it and that they could prosecute if we didn’t. It was a friendly debate with the water board engineer.

We managed to get a “subsidised repair” as I mentioned earlier. The new pipe had to be run from the toby on the street to our mains stopcock, which is approx 6 metres from the house wall. The water board would only run it as far as the house wall and we had to get a plumber to come on the same day to run it from the house wall to the stopcock. Fortunately, we could afford to do that, but it may be an issue for people who can’t.