What Happens When You Call for a Leak

The whole sequence in one view

People ring about a leak in a bad moment, and the thing that makes it worse is not knowing what happens next. Here is the entire sequence, from the first enquiry to the written findings. The rest of the page takes each step in turn, including the less comfortable branches: a leak that is not yours, a visit that shows no leak exists, and a live leak that cannot be located.

Every step has one job. The enquiry gets the right engineer and equipment to the right kind of leak. The quoted rate means the one number you can control is settled before anyone arrives. The safety check protects people before property. The search finds the source. The stop makes the home safe for the night. The written findings turn an event into something you can use with a landlord, a managing agent, an insurer or the water company.

• You contact the team and describe the leak.
• The hourly rate is quoted and agreed before an engineer attends.
• The engineer attends and makes the property safe.
• The source is found using the method the facts point to.
• The leak is stopped.
• A small fix is done on the spot; a larger repair is quoted in writing.
• You receive written findings of what was found, where and how it was confirmed.

Before you call: what to have ready

You do not need to understand plumbing to make a useful call. You need a few facts that anyone can gather in a couple of minutes, ideally while the water is being contained. If you cannot find them, ring anyway. The engineer can work from less.

The most helpful single fact is whether you have been able to stop the water. If you have turned off the supply at the stop tap and the dripping stops, that tells the engineer the leak is on the pressurised supply side. If it carries on, the source is probably heating, a tank or a waste. If you have not found the stop tap yet, say so and the engineer can help you find it.

• Where the water shows: which room, which ceiling, which wall, which floor.
• When you first noticed it and whether it is getting worse.
• Whether you have stopped the supply and whether that stopped it.
• Whether anything electrical is wet, near the water, or has tripped.
• The type of home: house, flat, who lives above and below, whether there is a shared riser or a communal meter room.
• Whether the heating system has been losing pressure or needing top-ups.
• The water meter reading, if you can find the meter.
• How to get in, including any concierge, key holder or landlord who needs to be told.

What to photograph and write down

A few photographs taken before anything is touched are worth more than any description. They show how the water looked when you found it, which helps the engineer judge where it started, and they are the first piece of evidence if the leak turns out to belong to someone else or becomes an insurance claim.

Take the stain or the puddle with something in the frame for scale. Take a wide shot of the room, a close shot of the worst point, and the ceiling or wall above and beside it. If water is dripping, a short video does more than a still. Photograph the meter and the reading. Put a pencil line around the edge of a stain with a time beside it, so that its growth can be seen later.

The photo checklist is a printable list of what to capture, and the what to record before the engineer arrives guide explains why each item matters. Keep yourself safe while you do it. A photograph is never worth standing in water near a socket or under a bulging ceiling.

What the engineer will ask you, and why

The first conversation is short and it is not an interrogation. Each question narrows the list of places the water could be coming from, which is the most valuable thing that can happen before the search begins. If you do not know an answer, say so. A confident wrong answer does more harm than an honest gap.

The call, the booking and the rate

When you book, the engineer or the team tells you the hourly rate. For emergency attendance that is from £220 an hour, and the exact rate is stated when you book. It is a fixed hourly rate quoted before we attend and never exceeded. Booking has no call-out fee and no travel charge: the rate starts when work starts. No VAT is charged.

The reason the rate is settled first is that it is the part of the bill you can pin down. The hours depend on the leak, and nobody can say how long a search will take without seeing it, so the total is always rate multiplied by time worked. The pricing page lists every rate and the typical totals, and each total is a worked example, not a quote.

You will also be told what to do while you wait. That is usually to stop the water if you can, keep electricity away from wet areas, contain what is dripping, and take your photographs. If the situation is one that should not wait for an engineer, for instance water near electrics, the first advice is about safety. The first hour of a burst pipe guide has the steps.

On site: what the engineer does, in order

Safety first, always. The engineer checks whether water and electrics are a danger, and stops the supply if it is still running. Then comes history, then quick checks, then the methods the facts point to. The aim is to use as little as possible, in the right order, because every extra method is an extra hour.

A typical visit starts with a meter test. With every tap closed and nothing running, a meter that moves says water is escaping on the supply between the meter and the taps. A meter that holds still says the leak is not on that supply, which makes heating, a waste, a stored tank, or an outside source more likely. After that the engineer looks at the visible pipework, appliance connections, valves and the underside of baths and basins, and takes readings of how wet and how warm the affected surfaces are.

The methods are then chosen from the list on the emergency leak detection page: acoustic listening, thermal imaging, moisture mapping, pressure testing, an endoscope, dye testing and tracer gas. None is used because it is on the van. Each is used because the facts so far suggest it can tell the engineer something the last one could not. When a method fails, the engineer says so, and moves to the next.

Once the source is confirmed, the leak is stopped. A small fix is done on the spot. For a longer repair, the leak is stopped first and the repair is quoted in writing. The emergency leak repair page explains the boundary between the two.

What happens when the leak is not yours

In a flat, the water in your home often comes from somewhere else: the flat above, a shared riser, a communal tank or the water company supply. The visit still does its job. The source is located, the engineer explains where it is and how that was confirmed, and the written findings say it plainly.

What happens next depends on who is responsible. A leak from a neighbour above is a conversation between you, them and probably a managing agent or landlord, and the findings are the evidence that starts it. A shared riser is the building's. The water company is responsible for its main and the pipe up to your boundary. The engineer will not repair what is not yours, and cannot enter a neighbour's property without their consent. The hours spent finding the leak are charged at the rate you were quoted, because the leak was located, and that is what you booked.

What happens when there is no leak

Sometimes the answer is that nothing is wrong. A meter that moves because of an appliance filling slowly. A stain that is condensation on a cold wall. An old mark that has not changed in months. A damp patch from a gutter. The engineer will say so, with the readings that support it.

Ruling a leak out is a real finding, and the hours it took are charged at the rate you were quoted, since you asked for the question to be answered and it was. It is not the same thing as a live leak that cannot be located, which is covered next. Where there is no leak, the written findings still help: they tell you the stain is not a pipe, and they give your landlord or insurer something firmer than a guess.

What happens when a live leak cannot be located

This is the hard case, and it is the one the policy is for. No find, no fee waives the detection fee only when a live leak inside your own property cannot be located. The detail, with worked examples, is on the no find, no fee page.

In practice this means the engineer has confirmed that water is escaping, perhaps through a moving meter or a falling pressure reading, the leak is in your own property, and the full range of methods has been applied without pinpointing it. At that point the engineer says plainly what has been ruled out and what remains, and the detection fee is waived. The leak is stopped or isolated as far as is possible so the property is safe. You are left with a written account of what was tested and what the results were.

How the quote works

There are two quotes in a leak job, and they are different things. The first is the rate, which is quoted before the engineer attends and does not change. The second is the repair, which is quoted after the leak has been found and stopped. Repair work runs at the same hourly rate as detection, with parts and materials costed on top and agreed before we start.

A small fix, such as tightening a fitting or changing a small part, is done on the spot once the leak is found. For a longer repair the leak is stopped first, and the repair is quoted in writing after that. A written quote says what is wrong, what will be done, the hours expected at the hourly rate, the parts costed on top, the access needed and what is left to make good. Making good is quoted by a partner team: Making good, such as walls, ceilings and decorating, is quoted per job by a partner team.

You are not obliged to accept the quote on the night, and you can take it elsewhere. The stop is done because water should not be escaping. The repair is your decision. The leak repair quote explained guide goes through the lines of a quote one at a time.

The written findings, and what to do with them

The findings are a plain record: where the water was, how the source was identified, what was done, and what is left. They are useful to the person who has to decide what happens next. A landlord or managing agent wants to know whether the fault is theirs. An insurer wants to know what happened and when. A neighbour wants to know what was found in their ceiling. A written note that names the location and the method does far more than a verbal account on the doorstep.

If the claim is likely to be formal, tell the engineer when you book. A trace and access report is a longer piece of work with its own rate of £200 an hour, as it involves recording the opening up of surfaces as well as the finding. No VAT is charged. Whether an insurer accepts the report is a matter for the insurer, and the team does not advise on your policy.