Water leaks and water meters

[ARWadsworth]

Just a heads up to anyone this may be relevant to if they have a water leak and have a metered water supply.

A friend of mine has just suffered this due to a frozen/burst water pipe in an unoccupied house. The water loss was somewhere in the region of 150m3. It just took one letter to Yorkshire Water who have knocked the 150m3 lost water off the next bill. YW say it is a one off goodwill offer but it certainly was worth the cost of a stamp.

And a company should be named for providing a good service, so I name Yorkshire Water for this action. I have no idea how other water companies compare with them so I would be interested if you have had good/bad experiences with other water companies if this has happened to you.

[John Walliker]

I had similarly good experiences with Wessex Water in Dorset. An old black polythene underground service pipe started to develop leaks in rocky ground.

On one occasion almost 2000 m^3 were lost in three weeks without any water being visible above ground. It just disappeared! The water pressure there (part way up a hill) was so high that even with a very rapid leak the flow from the taps was hardly affected.

It took just one phone call to get an inspector round who then arranged for a repair to be made free of charge. The (substantial) cost of the lost water was rebated.

There were several more leaks - each in a different place - before we replaced the service pipe (this time enclosed in corrugated blue conduit rather than buried direct).

The customer services staff at Wessex Water were friendly and efficient - they did what they said they would when they said they would do it and were very generous with multiple rebates.

What more could one want?

John

[Tim Lamb]

In message , ARWadsworth writes

I think you get one free leak:-)

We came back from a 2 week holiday last January to find a standpipe running full bore. When I had fixed that, the increased pressure highlighted a second leak at the meter.

Three Valleys Water Co. changed the meter promptly and accepted my estimate of actual consumption.

regards

>