A letter from Essex and Suffolk Water saying your usage has jumped, or that they suspect a leak on your supply, usually arrives out of the blue. Nothing in the house looks wet. The bill, or the meter reading quoted on the letter, says otherwise. Most people who ring us from Southend, Leigh on Sea, Maldon and the Essex coast start exactly here.
This guide covers what the letter is telling you, which pipe is yours and which is the company's, how to check the meter yourself in 10 minutes, how a leak engineer finds a leak you cannot see, and where insurance fits. It is written for customers in the Essex and Suffolk Water area, which takes in Southend, Chelmsford, Maldon and Lowestoft.
What the letter means
Essex and Suffolk Water read your meter, or receive a reading from a smart meter, and compare it with your history. If the reading is well above what a house of your size normally uses, they write to you. The letter either says your consumption is high and asks you to check for a leak, or says their own check found water moving through the meter when you were not using any.
The second kind is the firmer one. If a company inspector has opened the meter chamber and watched the dial turn with your internal stop tap closed, there is a leak on your side of the meter. It will be somewhere between the meter and the house, or inside the house on a pipe that is never switched off.
Which pipe is yours
Essex and Suffolk Water own the main in the road and the communication pipe that runs from the main to the boundary of your property, usually to a stop tap or meter at the edge of the pavement. From that boundary stop tap into the house, the pipe is the supply pipe, and it belongs to you. So does everything beyond it.
That is why the letter lands on you rather than the water company. The water has gone through the meter, so it has been drawn into your side. If the leak were on the communication pipe it would normally show as a wet patch on the pavement, and the company would deal with it as their own.
• Main in the road: the water company
• Communication pipe to the boundary: the water company
• Boundary stop tap: usually the company
• Supply pipe from the boundary to the house: you
• Internal pipework, heating and appliances: you
How to check the meter yourself
Find the meter. On most properties it is in a small chamber in the pavement or front garden, under a plastic or iron lid. Turn off every tap, appliance and outside tap, then look at the meter. Many have a small wheel or red dial that turns with the slightest flow. Note the full reading, wait an hour with nothing used, and read it again.
If the reading has moved, water is passing through the meter. Now close the internal stop tap, the one under the kitchen sink or wherever the supply enters the house, and repeat the test. If the dial stops, the leak is inside the house. If it keeps moving, the leak is on the supply pipe between the meter and the house.
That one test tells you most of what the water company's letter does not. Write down both readings and the times. If you then ring us, Charlie will ask for them, and they shape what equipment comes out on the visit.
The leaks we usually find behind these letters
The most common is a split or corroded supply pipe under the front garden or driveway. Old lead or galvanised pipes on the pre-war houses in Chalkwell, Milton and Belfairs are a regular cause, and so is a plastic pipe nicked years ago when a fence post or drive went in. The water drains into the ground and never shows.
Inside the house the usual suspects are a toilet cistern that overflows into the pan, a dripping overflow at the back of the house, a filling loop left slightly open on a combi boiler, and a leak on a buried heating pipe that the boiler keeps topping up through the loop. None of these show on the floor.
How a leak engineer finds it
The first step is to prove which system is leaking, as the meter test does but with better equipment. Charlie isolates the supply at the stop tap and fits a gauge. A pressure drop confirms a supply pipe leak. If the supply holds, the heating is tested next, then the hot water.
A supply pipe leak is found with acoustic listening. The pipe is kept under pressure and a ground microphone is moved along its route across the drive or lawn. The noise of water escaping is loudest directly over the hole, and that point is marked for digging. Where the pipe route is unknown, it is traced first.
A leak on an internal or heating pipe is found with a thermal camera, which shows the warm or cold line of the pipe through the floor and the spread of water around the leak, or with tracer gas for a pipe that can be drained. The floor comes up at one spot, not along the whole run.
You get a written report with the location, the method used and photographs. It is the document the water company and your insurer both want to see, and it tells the plumber or groundworker exactly where to open up. If nothing is found there is no charge: no find, no fee.
Insurance and the water company
Most home insurance policies include trace and access cover. That pays for finding the leak and for making good whatever had to be opened up to reach it, separate from the cost of the pipe repair itself. Check your policy schedule before you book, and tell the insurer a leak engineer is coming.
Once the leak is fixed, send the report and the repair invoice to Essex and Suffolk Water with a note of the dates. Whether they will adjust the bill, and by how much, is set by their own scheme and the wording on their website. We cannot promise an outcome, but a dated report with the readings makes the request easy to assess.
Where we have found these leaks in Essex and Suffolk
Charlie has traced leaks for customers in Chalkwell, Milton and Belfairs in Southend, in Hockley and Hawkwell, in Hadleigh, and out towards Maldon at Great Totham and Hatfield Peverel. Around Chelmsford, jobs have come from Boreham and the Hanningfields. The coast is the busiest patch for supply pipe leaks on older pipework.
We come from Haverhill in Suffolk. Maldon is about 40 miles away and Southend about 60, and if the letter gives a deadline we can usually book you in within 24 to 48 hours. The CM, CO and SS postcode areas are all covered, as is the Suffolk coast up to Lowestoft, which is also supplied by Essex and Suffolk Water.
Questions people ask
The letter says the leak is my responsibility. Is that right?
If the water has passed through your meter, yes. Essex and Suffolk Water own the pipe up to the boundary stop tap. From there to the house, and everything inside, is the owner’s. The company will usually not repair a supply pipe leak, although some run schemes for it. Check the letter or the company’s website for what they offer.
Can the water company find the leak for me?
They will normally confirm that water is passing through the meter, and sometimes tell you whether it is inside or outside the house. Pinpointing the leak to a spot you can dig or lift the floor at is not something they do. That is what a leak detection visit is for, and the written report is what you send back to them.
What if I cannot see any water anywhere?
That is normal. A supply pipe leak under a garden or drive soaks into the ground, and a leak under a concrete floor can run for months before damp shows. The meter test in this guide is the reliable sign. If the dial moves with everything off, there is a leak, whether or not you can see it.
How quickly can you come to Southend or Maldon?
Enquiries are taken 24 hours a day on 07897 020 680 and we can usually book you in within 24 to 48 hours. Tell Charlie what the letter says and what your meter test showed, and he will bring the right equipment for a supply pipe or an internal leak on the first visit.