Worried Sick - we have a water leak may cost £000's

thriftytracey

I had a letter from Severn Trent Water to say the DD was going up from £30 to £82 a month.  Two adults with water meter.

I called them and they said this letter was generated because we have a leak.  The engineer is coming on Monday 26th January to investigate.

I have just taken a photo reading of the water meter on the pavement outside our house and we have turned off the water in the house.  Confirmed this - no water coming out of taps at all.  I will leave this for an hour.  

If the next reading is the same and unchanged this must mean that the leak is on our side of the property.

I am extremely worried because I read that someone is being sued for £25,000 for the cost of repairing a leak.  Let alone paying for the cost of the water.  But, if the leak is our side we will have to pay for the repair using a private contractor and this will also cost £000's.  I checked our Buildings Insurance and there does not appear to be any cover for this situation.

I was advised that this leak has been going on since May 2025.  There is no water in the water meter box or obvious leak on the driveway or around the house.

MattMattMattUK

thriftytracey said:

I had a letter from Severn Trent Water to say the DD was going up from £30 to £82 a month.  Two adults with water meter.

I called them and they said this letter was generated because we have a leak.  The engineer is coming on Monday 26th January to investigate.

I have just taken a photo reading of the water meter on the pavement outside our house and we have turned off the water in the house.  Confirmed this - no water coming out of taps at all.  I will leave this for an hour.  

If the next reading is the same and unchanged this must mean that the leak is on our side of the property.

In theory, yes. However the leak will be on your side of the meter as otherwise they would not know you had a leak, it is showing because you have ongoing continuous usage which indicates a leak. 

thriftytracey said:

I am extremely worried because I read that someone is being sued for £25,000 for the cost of repairing a leak.  Let alone paying for the cost of the water.  But, if the leak is our side we will have to pay for the repair using a private contractor and this will also cost £000's. 

You will not be sued. If the leak is on your side of the meter then the cost of repair is on you, in most cases this is a toilet cistern continually overflowing, a supply into a header tank etc. and is a few hundred at most. If it is a main supply pipe then that could potentially cost a few thousand to repair, or equally a few hundred, depending on where the leak is. The increase from £302 to £82 likely already reflects the cost of the extra water.

thriftytracey said:

I checked our Buildings Insurance and there does not appear to be any cover for this situation.

It would not as it is a maintenance issue not an accident.

thriftytracey said:

I was advised that this leak has been going on since May 2025.  There is no water in the water meter box or obvious leak on the driveway or around the house.

If the leak is underground it could easily be leaking away and never visible at the surface, usually it is an overflow which means it is flowing straight down a drain within the property. 

Ayr_Rage

thriftytracey said:

I had a letter from Severn Trent Water to say the DD was going up from £30 to £82 a month.  Two adults with water meter.

I called them and they said this letter was generated because we have a leak.  The engineer is coming on Monday 26th January to investigate.

I have just taken a photo reading of the water meter on the pavement outside our house and we have turned off the water in the house.  Confirmed this - no water coming out of taps at all.  I will leave this for an hour.  

If the next reading is the same and unchanged this must mean that the leak is on our side of the property.

I am extremely worried because I read that someone is being sued for £25,000 for the cost of repairing a leak.  Let alone paying for the cost of the water.  But, if the leak is our side we will have to pay for the repair using a private contractor and this will also cost £000's.  I checked our Buildings Insurance and there does not appear to be any cover for this situation.

I was advised that this leak has been going on since May 2025.  There is no water in the water meter box or obvious leak on the driveway or around the house.

If the meter does not move with the house stop valve closed then there is no leak after the meter, simple as that.

If you've turned off the stop valve in the house and the meter moves the leak is in the pipe between the meter and house.

If it starts to move once you reopen the house stop valve and there are no taps running or tanks filling then the leak is in your home after that stop valve

thriftytracey

We turned off the water in the house but left the water on at the meter at the pavement.  We've left it an hour and the numbers on the meter are unchanged from an hour ago.

So now, we have turned on the water in the house but we won't use any water for a period of time.  We will then check the water meter reading again and it should not be changed?

QrizB

thriftytracey said:

We turned off the water in the house but left the water on at the meter at the pavement.  We've left it an hour and the numbers on the meter are unchanged from an hour ago.

That's good. It suggests that, if you do have a leak, it's internal to your house.

Did you read the meter while you had the chance? Did the reading match what was on your latest bill?

thriftytracey

QrizB said:

thriftytracey said:

We turned off the water in the house but left the water on at the meter at the pavement.  We've left it an hour and the numbers on the meter are unchanged from an hour ago.

That's good. It suggests that, if you do have a leak, it's internal to your house.

Did you read the meter while you had the chance? Did the reading match what was on your latest bill?

"Internal to your house" - you mean our side?  I thought it meant it was Severn Trent side as the numbers did not change.

MattMattMattUK

thriftytracey said:

QrizB said:

thriftytracey said:

We turned off the water in the house but left the water on at the meter at the pavement.  We've left it an hour and the numbers on the meter are unchanged from an hour ago.

That's good. It suggests that, if you do have a leak, it's internal to your house.

Did you read the meter while you had the chance? Did the reading match what was on your latest bill?

"Internal to your house" - you mean our side?  I thought it meant it was Severn Trent side as the numbers did not change.

Internal to the house means it is inside the house, much easier to fix than having to dig up the supply pipe under your garden/drive. 

The leak is on your side of the meter, it just means the leak is between the stock c*ck in your house and the taps/showers/appliances, not between the main supply at the meter and the stop c*ck. If the leak was not on your side of the meter they would have not contacted you, they would have just fixed the leak in their own pipe.

The way it flows is below, italics is their problem, everything after the meter is yours, the leak in your property is in one or more of the parts in the bold section, so pipes that flow around your house, taps, toilet cisterns, overflows etc. which come after the stop c*ck.

Water Main > Water Meter > Supply pipe > Stop c*ck > Internal distribution > Fixtures (taps etc.)

Bettie

I found it very stressful when I had an unknown leak. The cog on the meter kept turning when my water was switched off under the sink, I couldnt read the meter it was so far down. I have been told there was a leak  under the meter. Hopefully that is the only leak as no one came back to me and no one read the new meter they fitted when mending the leak.  They are sending someone to read the meter and work out a new bill. I was told though that they wouldn't charge for the water used if it was my fault for the first leak.
My insurance would cover track and trace but not the repair if it had been necessary.

thriftytracey

But the water meter reading did not change when we turned off the water in our house - surely that means the leak is their side?  We don't have any leaks in our house from any appliance.

QrizB

thriftytracey said:

But the water meter reading did not change when we turned off the water in our house - surely that means the leak is their side?

No.

A leak before the meter won't be recorded on your meter.

A leak after the meter but before your internal stoptap would mean the meter reading continues to increase even when you turn off your internal stoptap.

Only a leak after your stoptap - ie. within your house - would mean the meter stops when you turn off your stoptap.

Ayr_Rage

thriftytracey said:

But the water meter reading did not change when we turned off the water in our house - surely that means the leak is their side?  We don't have any leaks in our house from any appliance.

Any water loss before your meter (their side) will not be shown as an increase in meter readings as nothing is flowing through the meter.

You have eliminated a leak from the meter to your internal stop valve as the meter does not move when the valve is closed.

If the water company have correctly identified a leak by a large increase in water consumption then it MUST be somewhere inside your home AFTER the stop valve.

Suggest you check all water tanks, taps, cisterns and toilets for constantly flowing water along with looking for any damp spots on walls, both internal and external.