Thames Water says we have a water leak - is it a SCAM?

[vladi]

A few months ago, we were put on a compulsory water meter and today received a letter saying  that "your smart meter has alerted us that there's about 20 liters per hour flowing through your meter which usually means  there is a leak"

Firstly, it is not a smart meter, it is a simple meter 3 feet underground outside on the pavement. Secondly, we have no leaks and do not water the garden , ever.

There is just two of us in the house and we are very frugal with water so I reckon this is a money-making ploy by Thames Water which is on the verge of bankruptcy.

Have any one else had a similar letter?

 

[Sue]

22 minutes ago, vladi said:

A few months ago, we were put on a compulsory water meter and today received a letter saying  that "your smart meter has alerted us that there's about 20 liters per hour flowing through your meter which usually means  there is a leak"

Firstly, it is not a smart meter, it is a simple meter 3 feet underground outside on the pavement. Secondly, we have no leaks and do not water the garden , ever.

There is just two of us in the house and we are very frugal with water so I reckon this is a money-making ploy by Thames Water which is on the verge of bankruptcy.

Have any one else had a similar letter?

 

Does this not mean there could be  a leak between your house and the meter?

Have you phoned Thames Water to ask what the possible causes are and if they will be coming to investigate?

I had a leak in my house which I had no idea was there, btw. I found out about it on Christmas Day when water came through my kitchen ceiling. 

A concealed cistern had been slowly leaking water through a small  crack in a connection, probably for months, onto my bathroom floor behind a panel, where it could not be seen.

Edited February 28 by Sue

[first mate]

Thames Water has been installing smart meters for each home. You can lift off the covering and see the meter.

Before you go to bed go out and take a reading (photo). Ensure that overnight nobody flushes the loo or turns on taps.

As soon as you get up and before you fill the kettle, go out and take another reading. If it is the same as the other reading then I doubt you have a leak. If there is a difference then you need to investigate. I think at that point you could turn off your water at the mains and watch the meter, if it turns then it could be a leak external to your property.

 

[sally buying]

Received same letter. Monitored meter. No leak. Faulty meter

 

[Underhook]

Firstly, although I haven’t seen the letter, I highly doubt it is a scam. Water companies do this a lot in the months following smart meter installations in an area

It could mean either the meter is faulty and is picking up readings from a different property or more than one property, in which case TW can fix it, or you do indeed have a leak, which again they can then fix 

You can view your water bill online at any time. You should log in and check it, if your meter readings are high your bill may also be very high, so worth checking out and remedying it. Call TW back to resolve the issue!

 

[froggy]

Firstly, the fact that your meter is underground doesn't mean it isn't "smart".  If it was recently installed it is likely that it is connected.

You can see your half-hourly meter reads on Thames Water website (your account/your usage).  If they show usage during the night, for example, then you do have a leak.

The same happened to us, and it turned out that our dishwasher was not properly connected to the mains, and there was indeed a leak going under the house.  Check all your water connections (toilets, taps, dishwasher, washing machine etc.) first, but if it's a faulty pipe you'll probably need to lift the floors/dig and this could be costly - so make sure you do your homework before calling a professional to locate and fix the leak as it could be resolved with a simple valve tightening and save you £££s.

The good news is, if you fix the leak within a certain timeframe, Thames Water will refund you the cost of the water you lost due to the leak.  They did in our case.

Edited February 29 by froggy

[malumbu]

Not a scam, not sure how a water company would get away with such a scam.  For balance their performance is awful as we all know, and they do pressurise you into taking out cover for leaks, no different to other non-essential insurance such as boiler cover from British Gas or extended warranties.  British Gas were guilty 30 years ago of encouraging people to take out cover, then sending their engineer to come round and condemn your boiler whether it was serviceable or not.  Yes it happened to me.

But to their credit when we had a leak they were good at taking action, didn't charge us for excessive water use, replaced most of our lead mains pipe in the garden with plastic, but couldn't replace the final bit that came into the home where the leak was as that was not Thames' responsibility.  He closed up the hole as much as he'd dare without making it worse, gave me some basic advice about how best to sort this, and pointed me in the direction of a geezer from North Kent, and armed with good knowledge I got it done at a very reasonable price.  Helps to know some details which makes you much less vulnerable to over-charging.

We've discussed water meters before on this forum and the general consensus is they are needed to manage what can be a scarce resource.  Take a meter reading, turn your water off into the house, and then take another meter reading half an hour later.  Any change means either a leak outside the home, or a dodgy meter.  Repeat with the supply on, making sure no water running including flushing toilets.  A change in your meter reading would suggest a leak in the house.  Neither would be discovered without a meter.  And I think all this advice is on their website.

 

[vladi]

@Malumbu
Some Councils subsidise the cost of replacing lead supply pipes within the  boundary of the house owners property. So was that the reason the replaced the pipe across your garden?

[malumbu]

Nope, Thames Water say this is your responsibility BUT do replace them  I think because they have a statutory duty to reduce water leakage.  I expect local authorities are involved due to lead in water and past fears of lead poisoning/impact on children's intelligence.    But happy to learn otherwise 

[Gilbert Exeter]

WELL HELLO   I think I am being scammed by a water company.  Remember the POST OFFICE ?????  When my meter was changed the trouble started. I have requested an image of the old water meter taken by the engineer to no avail. I have requested a copy of the engineers report when investigating the supposed leak to no avail. There is something very fishy about the whole thing. In my case I am talking THOUSANDS of pounds.

[Underhook]

Why do you need a photo of your old meter? If you think your bill is incorrect and you are being overcharged you should contact TW and report this

[Sue]

On 08/09/2024 at 16:03, Gilbert Exeter said:

WELL HELLO   I think I am being scammed by a water company.  Remember the POST OFFICE ?????  When my meter was changed the trouble started. I have requested an image of the old water meter taken by the engineer to no avail. I have requested a copy of the engineers report when investigating the supposed leak to no avail. There is something very fishy about the whole thing. In my case I am talking THOUSANDS of pounds.

What has the Post Office got to do with it?

Also, what do you mean by "no avail"? Have they refused point blank to tell you what the engineer's report said, and if so what reason did they give, or have you just had no response?

If you are talking about Thames Water, they have many different departments, and you need to persevere until you reach somebody who can actually help.

Edited September 9 by Sue

[vladi]

I recommend you take your own water meter readings once a day for around a month and this will give an accurate account of your actual regular consumption. That way you you can challenge the water companies data.

By way of a further refinement, you might consider turning off the stop cock where the incoming mains supply enters your house. Do this late at night and then take the meter reading. Take the reading early next morning and then turn the supply back on. Compare this with the hourly consumption on the water companies web site.  If there is no difference between the readings, then this eliminates the possibility of  internal leaks. If there is a difference on their website from the night before then you have a faulty meter and that undermines their case.

[malumbu]

Thames water advice is to take your own readings if you think you have a leak.  With all the taps and other water feeds off, with stop cock on and stop cock off.  Despite all the issues we with the company they were very good to me when I had a real leak in the old lead pipe into the house.  Now all plastic 

[Sue]

I have just noticed that this thread was started in February.

[KS23]

I’ve also had a meter recently installed and have been told they have monitored 18 litres of water passing continuously through my pipes per hour. 

On the letter from TW they have a Dedicated phone number for this and I got through relatively easily and their engineer will be coming over in the coming weeks to locate the leak.
 

As it stands I can’t see any sign of damp on the walls and no water coming through the decking in the back garden and the water pressure from the pipes are fine too. But apart from this I await the proffesional report. 

TW also advised that if if the leak is located in my boundary whilst it’s my responsibily to get it fixed as long as I provide commitment to get it rectified in 21 days of their visit they waive the water loss.
 

It is ofc stressful but it does seem that TW will do everything they can to help get this fixed if it’s within your own boundary. Hope this helps the other posters in this thread 🙂
 

 

[Monkey]

OP, are you at the Peckham Rye end of Dunstans Road by any chance? There’ been a leak here for over a year, which caused me to come off my bike when it froze over last November. I reported it to the Council and Thames Water and nothing’s happened.

Edited Wednesday at 12:43 by Monkey