Leaking water supply pipe on recently purchased house

[JustforAlice]

Hello

Bought a house recently (completed on July 20th).
Three weeks ago got our first water bill where we have gone from a bill average of £18 per month to a fresh new hell of £272 for 52 days.
Clearly a leak - supplier agrees.
Today their engineer came out and there is a leak between the water meter and our house so our responsibility to fix. It's going to cost quite a lot.

Do we have any legal recourse against the sellers of the property?
Thanks in advance
:)

Unless you can prove the leak was there before you took ownership, then I doubt you could claim from the previous owner. It probably isn't impossible to prove if it's a longstanding leak once they open up the pipe hole, or the previous owner might produce their water bill showing they paid a normal amount to prove the opposite.