Leak Repair

Subsidised leak repair scheme - A partnership in stopping leakage

Up to 20% of all leakage in Dee Valley Water's area of supply is lost through pipework which is the customer’s responsibility. You the customer are responsible for the repair of any leaks that occur on your section of service pipe (which you own) - that is the section which runs between the boundary of the street in which our main is laid and your property.

It is vitally important that leakage is reduced to acceptable levels in order to protect the environment and reduce energy costs.

If you receive a letter from us advising you of a leak, we can offer our domestic customers (subject to conditions):

• Free leak detection and location service

• Free leak repair to customer’s supply pipe up to and including 32mm diameter

This work is subject to the following conditions:

1. You must contact us within 7 days of receipt of the first letter (LL3).

2. The property must be solely used for domestic purposes (council, housing association and private land lorded properties are not included) and the property must be over 12 months old.

3. The first two leaks only are covered in the lifetime of the property. We will only make one free repair in any one calendar year.

4. If you think you have a leak on your external pipework we will help you look for it. We offer domestic customers a leak detection service which is free for the first two man hours.

5. We will carry out the repair and pay the first £220 of the cost of the repair (including any associated works). If the cost is likely to be above £220 we will tell you before work commences exactly how much you will need to pay towards repairing the leak. At this stage we will ask you if you wish us to continue with the work or you can appoint a private contractor. When we carry out the repair any costs above £220 will have to be met by you.

6. We will not offer this service where the leak is under or immediately adjacent to a permanent structure or where we cannot readily identify the leak, for example on a long length of pipe.

7. The service pipe can be traced successfully using the equipment available to us.

8. Full access to the indoor stop tap must be readily available for it to be removed for us to use our leak detection equipment.

9. Access to the pipe should be readily available and the pipe must be less than 1.5m deep, temporary structures such as sheds, trees, shrubs, ornaments and potted plants etc, must be removed and put back by you.

10. We will back-fill the excavation with the excavated material, but the final reinstatement will be your responsibility. Any hard surfaces will be finished in temporary tarmacadam.

11. If we determine that your service pipe is in poor condition or uneconomical to repair it will be your responsibility to employ a contractor to repair or replace the service.

12. We may replace up to 5 metres of supply pipe free of charge using a moling technique.

13. If any of the pipe work is in someone else's property it will be your responsibility to arrange with the owner for access. If we find that this causes problems we may decide not to carry out the repair.

14. We reserve the right not to carry out a Free Repair if it is uneconomical to do so, due to its position or condition of the pipe.

If you do not wish to use our free repair service or the leak does not qualify under the scheme you will be expected to repair the leak as instructed by the Waste Letter (LL3) entirely at your cost.

Please Note: Unless we have been found to be negligent, we will not be held liable for any claims for injury to persons or damage to property (including customer's fittings) which arise as a result of our work.

No warranty is given on any repair if the pipework is deemed by us to be in poor condition.