Trace and access: locating the leak behind a home insurance claim
Trace and access leak detection finds the hidden leak behind a home insurance claim and records its position and the access needed to reach it. Red Rose Leak Detection locates leaks for trace and access claims across North West England.
Which costs does trace and access cover meet?
Trace and access cover meets the cost of the work needed to find a hidden leak at your home and to reach it, and MoneySuperMarket adds that it covers repairing the damage caused during that search.
Admiral says trace and access cover pays for tracking down the source of a hidden leak so that it can be repaired. Trace and access is common in home insurance, especially in buildings insurance, Admiral says, and MoneySuperMarket says it is common for insurers to offer it as standard, though not every insurer does.
Buildings cover matters here. Admiral says "you won't be covered if you only have contents insurance". The wording of your own policy decides what it pays, and Admiral's trace and access guide and MoneySuperMarket's trace and access explainer set out the general position.
What counts as escape of water?
Escape of water, in Admiral's terms, means water leaking from the mains supply, and its cover applies to water escaping from a water pipe, a domestic appliance, a fixed central heating system or a fixed water tank.
Admiral's own exclusions show where its cover stops. They are one insurer's terms, listed below.
- Damage to any drains and pipes.
- Overflowing taps that were left on.
- Faulty, failed or inadequate grout or sealant.
- Water escaping from external pipes above ground.
- Loss or damage while the home is unoccupied.
A fixed central heating system is on Admiral's list, so the leak traced by central heating leak detection for a boiler gauge that keeps falling can be the source of the escaping water behind a claim. Admiral's escape of water page gives its full wording.
Should you speak to your insurer before booking a leak investigation?
Your insurer should hear about the leak before the investigation is booked, because insurers set their own process: Ageas wants to agree the work before it starts, and Admiral usually leaves the customer to book a professional, who may have to be paid first and the cost claimed back.
- Read the policy, checking that it includes buildings cover and trace and access.
- Call the insurer first. MoneySuperMarket advises calling your insurer first, and Admiral says most insurers prefer to be contacted first about escaping water.
- Agree how the leak will be located. Ageas also warns that it does not refund the cost of the works if, after further investigation, the claim is turned down.
- Have the leak located, with its position and the access needed to reach it written down.
- Keep the invoices, the reports and any other evidence, which Admiral asks customers to hold on to.
- Leave the decision to the insurer, which weighs the findings against the policy.
Where water is coming through now, the leak comes first. If it is safe to do so, Admiral's steps for escaping water are to close the stopcock to shut off the mains supply, drain the system through the cold tap, switch the power off and keep away from electrical appliances, and open doors and windows; where switching off the mains electricity would involve standing in water, Admiral says to call an electrician instead.
Which findings help a trace and access claim?
A trace and access claim is helped by findings that give the leak's location, its cause where it can be seen, and photographs of the leak and the area around it.
- The location
- Confused.com says the specialist's findings go to the insurer, setting out where the leak is and the access work it will take to reach it.
- The cause
- Because insurers commonly exclude wear and tear, damage that built up gradually and general repairs to the pipe or heating system that leaked, the cause recorded in a report can decide a claim.
- Photographs and video
- Aviva, Admiral, NFU Mutual and MoneySuperMarket all advise photographs, and MoneySuperMarket suggests photos or videos of both the leak and the surrounding area.
- Failed parts
- Keoghs, lawyers who act for insurers, advises holding on to failed parts and pipes until the insurer agrees they can be disposed of.
A leak on the hot and cold pipes inside the home is found through pipe leak detection before a floorboard comes up, and Red Rose Leak Detection records where it is and the access needed to reach it, for the owner, the plumber, the landlord or the insurer.
Does trace and access pay to repair the leaking pipe?
Trace and access cover stops short of repairing the leaking pipe: Admiral and MoneySuperMarket both say the repair itself falls outside it, and in Financial Ombudsman Service decision DRN-5382026 the ombudsman found the same of the policy in that case.
Admiral's guide also leaves out the damage the leak caused, so the repair and the water damage fall to other parts of a policy, or to the owner, as each policy sets out.
Who claims when the water came from a neighbour's home?
You might be able to claim for your damaged belongings on your own contents insurance, Citizens Advice says, while a neighbour whose carelessness caused the leak is responsible for paying for them; Shelter England adds that the freeholder's buildings insurance sometimes covers damage from neighbouring properties.
The repairs, and the conversation with the neighbour that Citizens Advice puts first, are covered under who pays when a leak damages the flat below, and Citizens Advice gives its rules for England in full on its leak from a neighbouring flat page.
Is the leak on the heating, a water pipe or the supply pipe?
The leak behind a trace and access claim is on one of three systems, and each is located a different way: the central heating, the water pipes inside the building, or the underground supply pipe.
A boiler gauge that keeps falling sends the search to the heating circuit, traced through central heating leak detection.
Stains, damp or the sound of running water with every tap off point indoors, to the hot and cold pipes and to pipe leak detection inside walls, floors and ceilings.
A meter that keeps turning with the internal stop tap closed points to the buried supply pipe, and underground water leak detection follows it from the boundary to the house.
All four investigations are set out together on the page for leak detection across the North West.