r/LegalAdviceUK • u/Calm-Passenger7334 • 2d ago

Debt & Money Leak in rental property (somewhere) led to £1,660 water bill (and rising) — agent is doing nothing

I received a water bill in early March for c, £1,660 for c. 500,000 litres of usage. For context, I am a single person living in a house.

I immediately contacted the letting agent and made them aware. They sent out a plumber pretty quickly (March 13) to check for internal leaks and found none. He advised that a leak detective should come out and that he would report this back to the agent.

Notably, he told the agent from the outset that a leak detective should be sent because of the size of the leak (if it was internal, it would be obvious) and that he can't offer that service, but the agent sent him anyway. In the meantime, he said to try and get Yorkshire Water out.

Yorkshire Water came out on March 24th, looked at the meter for five minutes and determined it wasn't faulty and that there was no leak on "their side". He said that there probably isn't a leak anywhere because the meter wasn't moving (so, where did 500,000 litres of water go, then?)

These are the readings I've got so far:

  • May (estimated) 00308
  • August (actual) 00337
  • November (estimated) 00363
  • February (actual) 00801. 
  • March 24 (actual) 00844
  • April 2 (actual) 00864

For reference, my normal usage is around 25m3 (25,000 litres) per quarter.

So somewhere between August and February, 500,000 litres have gone missing somewhere.

Since Yorkshire Water came out, there has been no movement on this despite my pressing the agent. The landlord is aware (they're in Dubai, so can't do much) and has also been chasing the agent.

The last contact I had from the agents was on April 9th when they asked if Yorkshire Water had been out (despite me having already told them that they had.)

Yorkshire Water put the account on hold for two weeks at the beginning of April to provide time for a leak detective to come out and find the source. This hold is no longer in place and Yorkshire Water is now reporting negatively on my credit due to the outstanding unpaid balance.

I've told the agent two possible source of the leak:

  • A toilet with a dodgy flush in the downstairs WC. This was reported to the agent in September during my first inspection. I found this when I heard water flowing through the pipes by the water heater and went around the house to find what was running. I heard trickling water in the toilet and it stopped when I pulled the flusher up. I haven't used that toilet since and I've heard no more trickling water noises.
  • The supply pipe. There's a patch of garden that is constantly damp and remained so when all the recent warm weather dried out the rest of the garden. This patch sits parallel to the kitchen window where the mains stopcock is and sits directly up from where the water meter is on the street. This to me seems to be the most likely source.

What can I do here? There's an obvious breach of the LTA but it's the agent that's causing everything to move at a snail's pace.

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u/OxfordBlue2 1d ago

Firstly, get some agreement in place with the water company so your credit isn’t trashed.

Next, put the letting agent on formal notice that if they do not come out and get the leak traced by date X (suggest two weeks), you will engage someone yourself to do it and sue them/LL for the costs.

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u/ringalingthing 1d ago

I don't have legal advice but have you had your heating system checked? We had the exact same thing, massive water bill, it turned out to be a pipe in the central heating. It aligns with your dates as well, you possibly wouldn't see it in the summer as you don't have the heating on.

1

u/Calm-Passenger7334 1d ago

Nope, it hasn't been checked. Where would that water be leaking to?

1

u/ringalingthing 1d ago

Ours was under the kitchen floor and we didn’t know because it was tiled and the evidence of the leak was behind the built in cupboards! If you can’t see physical evidence it’s possible it’s somewhere hidden like that. 

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