Water leak in / around rental property. Who pays the bill ?

[MrGin]

Water company have confirmed there is a water leak somewhere on / around the rental property I rent. The water bill is high because of this.

Anyone have experience of this as I'm going to ask the landlord to split the water bill.

Do you pay the water bill? Are you on a water meter? You need to go back through your bills and see if your usage increased over time. What has the water company said about locating the leak?

This happened to our neighbour last year. They had to get a plumber in to see if there were any leaks inside the property, but if there aren't and it's on the other side of the meter, then the water company have to inspect their pipes for it. If you're their customer I think you'll probably need to take it up with the water company.

Yes, I pay the bill. The water co. raised the concern when I received my first bill as it seemed too high for the occupancy. So there is no other bill to compare to.

They've checked the meter etc and decided the leak is within the property boundary. ( there was a leak on the meter side also but they've since fixed this )

The tenancy agreement will say who is responsible for this.

Legislation has recently changed so water companies are responsible for more pipework than previously. Your ll needs to speak to the water company and arrange the work but the financial consequence of the leak will be down to you and ll to negotiate - he may have insurance. I'd have thought a previous bill or the water company should be able to give you an idea of "normal" usage and cost to compare.

Thanks for the replies.

The last tenant before me was 9 Hungarians :) . God knows where they all slept.

It's now just me and dd every other w/e. So the bills will be very different.

Hopefully I can get the meter monitored asap with the water turned off and get an accurate reading of how much water is leaking and the negotiate splitting the water bill sensibly and fairly.

As far as I can tell it's the ll's responsibility to keep the utilities in working order so I'm not expecting to be asked to fund the digging up of the garden to look for the leak.

The first and easiest place to check is the toilet cistern often there is a tiny piece of scale just holding the valve open allowing water to continue to trickle in without making a sound. This was the case with us and several other people I know. Only solves the problem going forward.