We have a leak! Water pipe in garden!

[PippaGripper]

We have had loads of rain over the last few weeks. Massive puddles on my front lawn.
But no! It's not the rain. Went to read the water meter which we only do at Christmas as it's spinning at high speed!!
There is a leak somewhere. Rang the water company ( Anglian Water). They will send someone by the end of the week.

Has anyone had anything similar ? Looking at my home insurance, no outdoor pipes are covered.
And we have a fantastic brick path that we saved for.
All I can see is a massive unknown bill, inconvenience because of Christmas and my lovely path being dug up.

Is this your first leak?

We had a leak not long after moving in, our water company (SWW) have a scheme where if its your first leak they adjust your bill so you don't pay for lost water (had to send 2 readings a week apart once it was fixed). They also pay you up to x amount for fixing the leak, or up to y amount if you replace the whole pipe from the meter to the house. We did the second because it was far easier than than digging up the whole old pipe as we didn't know where it was. We dug down to the pipe where it joined the meter, and dug a trench to where the pipe went into the house following a line that was least disruptive for us, and then cut the old pipe at the house and the meter, and connected our new pipe. The old pipe is still in the ground, not connected to anything now.

Sent SWW the receipts and they sent us a cheque.

Yes, first leak. We have lived here 20 years.

Anglian Water said they are only responsible for the first 6 inches of pipes.
It doesn't sound like they will be as generous!

I'm fairly convinced it's leaking under our path or lawn, much more than 6 inches!
It's not just the expense and inconvenience and mess...it's Christmas! We aren't going to find as many options of people to come out are we? Builders can pick and choose in this area. I'm assuming drain/pipe people are the same.

Do you have any insurance? I have British Gas home care which covers drains and plumbing type stuff. Or your house insurance?

If the water runs from a neighbours house into a shared drain/pipe then the water company are responsible iirc, because it cannot be proven that a leak is your 'fault'.
I'm not sure they can say they are only responsible for the first 6 inches of pipe - I'd want a second opinion on that tbh

It's not a drain that's leaking, it's the mains water coming into the property. As it's OPs side of the meter, it's most likely to be only serving OPs property, so will be OPs pipe, just like the pipes inside the house.

I'd start ringing round companies now OP, it sounds like it's very unlikely Anglian Water will fix it for you so I don't think there's any point waiting for them to come out before trying to find someone to help you.

Is there a chance that the pipe may be made of lead? It was the usual material for water pipes until the mid 1960s. If so you may be able to get it replaced under some kind of lead replacement scheme.

Also once the repair has been made ask about a Leakage Allowance.

We had a similar problem at our last property, we didn't realise there was a leak until we got a water bill for over £600 (and this was 15 years ago!). It turns out the leak was actually at the meter, and this was in a space in a manhole halfway down shared steps, together with several other meters, so the water company were liable to fix it and did, plus reducing our bill.
Hopefully your problem will be at the water company's end of your supply.... but that doesn't help with your lovely new path!

Oh - and since then we have moved to a house with a fairly long shared drive with the meters at the beginning of it.... so quite a long stretch of pipe to have problems in which we would have to pay for.... I took out additional (cheap) insurance to cover this as I think it's worth it for us.

Definitely just our place. I don't know if the pipes are made lead. The house is old but modernised in the 80s ( at a guess).
We have house insurance but it doesn't seem to cover us for outside pipes.
I'm hoping it's the leak is near the meter and we will be fine.
Please keep your fingers crossed for me.
We already have a roofer booked for the New Year
I think our house has become a bit like an old car. It suddenly needs things spending on it.

Definitely don't refer to it as drains, that's wastewater terminology and if your water meter is spinning madly it'll be a burst on the water pipe. If the water is coming up in your front garden then I'm afraid it's more than likely going to be your responsibility as it's within the boundary of your property. Responsibility for pipes and pumping stations - Ofwat

https://www.anglianwater.co.uk/siteassets/household/help-and-advice/leakage-leaflet-march-23.pdf

We had a leak years ago and the rule was if on your property you pay. It wasn't a shared pipe with any neighbours (main pipe went along the street then individual pipe to each property). I can't remember about insurance though. It was a pita but these things are part of house maintenance!

We've just had this a couple of months ago. If it is what it sounds like, which is a leak in your supply pile between the water meter and wherever it enters your house.

Do you have an internal stop cock which you can turn off? If you do so, does the water meter keep spinning? If yes, that pretty much confirms the leak is in the supply pipe rather than within your house.

It will be your responsibility to fix, unless as pp said, you have a very old house with lead pipes.

It sounds like you've asked already, but some home insurance policies will cover trace & access or underground works to find the leak. They won't cover the repair of the actual leak (which might be a relatively small cost) but they will cover finding it and then making good any holes which have had to be dug etc.

If home insurance definitely won't cover it, and you are confident it's the supply pipe, then you need a water supply pipe repair or replace person.

We did use our insurance but they were actually pretty bloody useless and I wish we hadn't. Once they worked out which contractor they needed to send, and the right guys arrived,actually fixing it wasn't half as bad as I expected.

We had a leaking water main. As someone else has said, the old pipe isn’t mended, it’s easier and cheaper to just replace.
We hired a man with a digger to dig a trench, and a plumber to join the pipe either end. no digging up of paths or patios.

If it’s your side of the meter it sounds like you need a plumber asap.

We had a leak in the mains supply earlier in the year. We didn't know but the water company could hear it before the pipe went and had a dribble but our NDN had no water at all. After much to-ing and fro-ing as it was very close to the stop tap in the pavement, the water company dug the pavement up and it was established it was on the private side. They fitted a temporary overland supply and our insurance company handled the repairs. We're not on a meter.

I had a leak a few months ago and it was definitely our responsibility but I did a sadface at the Scottish Water man that came out and he said he'd refer it to another department. We were passed around 4 different departments but we did get it all fixed for free - it was at their discretion if they’d do it or not. I like to think my sadface was just that excellent.

You will be able to make a leakage allowance claim - if the leak is your responsibility you should at least be able to get a refund on sewerage. Sewerage is usually billed at 90% of water used. The water leaking hasn't gone into sewerage so you could get an abatement for that.