Water Leak in the House: Who to Call and in What Order

Who to call for a water leak: the short answer

There is no single number to ring. Who you call depends on two things: where the water is coming from, and who is responsible for that part of the building. A burst joint under your own sink is yours to deal with. A stain on the ceiling of a flat may belong to the flat above. Water welling up in the pavement outside is the water company's problem, not yours.

Three rules hold in almost every case. A smell of gas comes before everything else. Water near electrics comes next. After that, stop the water if you can, because every other call is easier once the water is no longer running. The table matches what you can see to the first call to make. It cannot cover every situation, so if yours is not on it, let the safety rules break the tie and ring someone who can stop the water.

If you are unsure how urgent it is, the emergency checker asks a few questions and gives a verdict.

The first minutes, before you ring anyone

Five minutes spent on these steps changes the rest of the night. They cost nothing, they need no tools, and they stop the leak getting bigger while you work out who to call. Stop at any step that would mean standing in water or reaching near a wet electrical fitting.

The first hour of a burst pipe goes into more detail. This is the short version.

• Close the stop tap. It is usually under the kitchen sink or where the supply pipe enters the property. Turn it clockwise until it stops, and do not force a stiff one with a tool.
• Switch off the electricity at the consumer unit only if you can reach it without standing in water. If you cannot, leave it and keep clear.
• Move belongings and rugs out of the water's path, and catch the flow with a bowl, a bucket or towels.
• Photograph the water, the damage and the surroundings, and film a short video if water is still moving. Do this before you clear anything away.
• Write down the time you noticed it, the time you closed the tap and anything you touched. A note made while the memory is fresh is worth more than one reconstructed later.

Who does what, and what each one cannot do

Most of the wasted time in a leak comes from ringing the wrong kind of firm. Each of the people below is the right call in one situation and the wrong call in another, and none is better than the rest. The table sets out what each can do and where each one stops.

The order to ring in

Follow the list from the top and stop when you reach the call that fits your situation. Several can happen at once: you can message a landlord while an engineer is on the way. What matters is that the safety calls come first and the paperwork calls come last.

• If you smell gas, the National Gas Emergency Service. Nothing else matters until you are outside and they have been told.
• If anyone is hurt, if a ceiling has come down or if there is a fire at an electrical fitting, the emergency services.
• Stop what you can yourself: the stop tap, the electricity if it is safe, containment of the water.
• Whoever controls the source. For your own pipework that is a plumber or a leak detection firm. In a rented or shared building it is the landlord, the agent or the freeholder. For the street supply it is the water company.
• Your insurer, as soon as the water has stopped and before any repair begins. Many policies include an emergency line, and some insurers want to send their own contractors.
• Anyone who has to make the building safe or sound again: an electrician, a drying firm, a building contractor. The water damage guide covers that stage.

Where we fit, and where we do not

Emergency Leak Experts London is one option among the people above, and it suits one specific situation: water is escaping or damp is spreading, and nobody can say where it is coming from. We attend, find the source, stop the leak and, if it is a small job such as tightening a fitting or changing a small part, fix it on the spot. For a longer repair we stop the leak first and then give you the repair in a written quote. Making good, such as walls, ceilings and decorating, is quoted per job by a partner team.

Emergency attendance is from £220 an hour. It is a fixed hourly rate quoted before we attend and never exceeded, and there is no call-out fee and no travel charge: the rate starts when work starts. No VAT is charged. The pricing page lists every rate, and how it works explains the visit step by step. London inside the M25, 24/7.

There are things we do not do, and it is better you know now than after you have rung. We do not repair the water company's mains or the pipe in the street. We do not deal with drains, roofs or gas. We are not an insurer, a loss adjuster or a drying firm. If your leak turns out to be a neighbour's, a communal riser's or the water company's, we locate it and the hours are charged, because that is the answer you called us for. The no find, no fee page sets out the one case where the detection fee is waived. Our emergency leak detection and emergency leak repair pages describe the two services in full.

A leak in a flat, or from a flat

Flats add a layer, because the pipes are not all yours. Inside your flat, the pipework serving your kitchen, bathroom and radiators is generally yours or your landlord's. The risers that run through the building, the roof tanks and the pipes under the common parts belong to the freeholder or the management company, and the managing agent is the person who arranges their repair.

If water is coming into your flat from above, call the managing agent first and the neighbour second, even if you know the neighbour well. The agent can reach the building's other residents, can get into common areas and can arrange a shut-off for a riser. A neighbour who is out for the weekend cannot be reached at all, and the agent's out-of-hours line often can. Knock on the door as well, in case the cause is a tap left running.

If water is leaving your flat for the one below, close your stop tap and tell the agent at once. You will want a written trace of who was told what and when. The leak from the flat above guide covers how urgent a leak from upstairs is.

If nobody with responsibility for the building will act, a leak detection firm can still attend your own flat, find where the water is coming from and give you something written to pass on. It cannot go into a neighbour's home without their permission, and it cannot make a managing agent respond.

A leak in a rented home

If you rent, the first call after the stop tap is usually your landlord or letting agent, not a plumber. In most tenancies the landlord is responsible for the pipework and the structure, and a repair you arrange yourself may not be refunded unless they agreed to it. Ring the emergency number your agreement gives you, and follow the call with a message so there is a written record. Include the time, the photographs and what you have switched off.

If you cannot reach anyone and the water is still escaping, doing what is needed to stop the damage is reasonable. Close the stop tap, contain the water, and tell the landlord what you did. If an engineer has to attend because no one answered, keep the invoice and the record of your attempts to get through. Whether the cost comes back to you depends on your tenancy, and a tenants' advice service can tell you where you stand.

What to have ready when you ring

Whoever you call will ask the same handful of questions. Having the answers ready shortens the call and helps the right equipment arrive the first time. This is a checklist of facts, not a script. The ceiling guide has what to say to each caller.

• Where in the property you can see water, damp or damage, and which floor it is on.
• When you first noticed it, and whether it is growing, steady or getting better.
• Whether the water is clean or looks brown, grey or smells, which tells a caller whether it may be a drain.
• Whether the stop tap is closed and whether the water stopped when you closed it. That single fact separates a supply leak from everything else.
• Whether anything electrical is wet, and what you have switched off.
• Whether you own the property, rent it or live in a flat in a larger building, and who the landlord or managing agent is.
• The name of your insurer and your policy number, if you have it close by.
• Photographs and a note of the times. The record before the engineer arrives guide lists what is worth capturing.

The wrong first calls, and what they cost you

Four first calls cost people time. None is a disaster, but each is avoidable.

Ringing the insurer first while water keeps running. The insurer cannot stop the leak, and the call can take a while. Stop the water, then ring.

Ringing a plumber for a leak nobody can see. A plumber may start opening surfaces to look, which means holes in a wall with no certainty at the end. A hidden source is a job for someone who looks for them. A known, visible fault is the opposite: it needs a plumber, not a survey.

Ringing the water company for a leak inside the house. They will ask whether the water is on your side of the boundary, and if it is, they will send you away.

Ringing a building contractor before the leak is found. Replastering a wall that is still wet from an active leak is paying to do the work twice.