Trace and Access Claims in West Wickham Homes Explained

Many home insurance policies will pay to find a hidden leak in your West Wickham house, under a section usually called “trace and access”. It covers the cost of locating the leak and opening up, then making good, the floor or wall to reach it, up to a limit set in your policy. What it usually does not cover is the worn pipe or fitting that failed, and your excess still applies. Ring your insurer before major work starts, collect meter readings and photos, and get a written leak report that says where the leak was and why it happened.

What “trace and access” means

When a pipe leaks inside a floor, wall or under the garden, there are three costs:

• Finding it: the leak detection visit, with thermal imaging, acoustic listening, tracer gas or pressure testing.
• Getting to it: lifting floor, cutting into a wall or digging a trench.
• Putting it back: relaying the screed, plastering, retiling or reinstating the path.

Trace and access is the part of a buildings policy that pays for those. Separately, the “escape of water” section pays for the damage the leak caused: wet ceilings, flooring, plaster, kitchen units. The repair of the pipe itself is usually treated as maintenance and left to you.

Policies differ a lot. Some include trace and access as standard, some only as an add-on, some cap it at a modest figure. Check your policy wording, not just the summary.

Why it matters in West Wickham

West Wickham’s housing makes hidden leaks common.

1930s semis and detached houses. Most of the town’s inter-war houses had heating added later, with the pipes chased into the solid front-room floor. When one of those pipes pinholes, there is no visible water. You get a boiler gauge that keeps dropping and, sometimes, a warm patch on the carpet.

Coney Hall. Built from 1933 by Morrell Brothers on Coney Hall Farm, with about 1,000 homes planned and the Kingsway parade on Croydon Road. Construction quality was famously argued over at the time: a Kingsway resident’s mortgage strike in 1937 fed into the Building Societies Act 1939. Ninety years later, the plumbing in those houses has been patched and extended many times, and the chalet bungalows’ cold roof spaces add frozen pipe leaks in winter.

Lead and iron under the front path. The original supply pipe is often still there, failing quietly. A creeping water meter, a soft patch on the lawn and a high bill are the clues.

What insurers usually pay, and what they don’t

Usually covered (check your wording):

• the leak detection visit and report;
• opening up the floor, wall or ground to reach the leak;
• making good afterwards;
• damage caused by the escaping water.

Usually not covered:

• the cost of the pipe or part that failed;
• gradual damage over a long period that you knew about and ignored;
• leaks from a failed seal or grout around a shower, under many policies;
• your excess.

Evidence that makes a claim smooth

1. Take a meter reading, wait an hour with no water used, and read it again. Photograph both.
2. Photograph the boiler pressure gauge over a few days if it keeps dropping.
3. Photograph every stain, damp patch, warped floor or bulging ceiling as soon as you see it.
4. Ring your insurer, get a claim number and ask whether you have trace and access cover and the limit.
5. Ask whether they want to appoint their own contractor or will accept yours.
6. Keep the leak detection report: where the leak was, what caused it and how it was found.
7. Keep receipts for anything you pay for, including drying equipment.
8. Do not throw away damaged items until the insurer says you can.

Find it gently, and the claim stays small

The bigger the hole, the bigger the claim and the longer the house is upside down. Non-invasive tracing, done first, usually narrows a leak down to a single small opening. In a West Wickham 1930s front room, that can mean one section of floor, not the whole room.

Once found, a buried heating pipe is often better re-routed above the floor than repaired in the slab, because the rest of that old pipe is just as worn. That decision is yours, and we explain both options and the price before we start. Some insurers will contribute the cost of the repair they would have paid for, towards the re-route.

Water bills and Thames Water

If the leak is on your supply pipe and you are metered, Thames Water says you must fix a known leak on your side within four weeks. If you do, you may be able to claim a leak allowance for the water lost. Keep the repair invoice. Thames also says that if you did not use a WaterSafe approved plumber, it may come to check the work.

Getting help

Our insurance help page explains the report we write for insurers and how we work with loss adjusters. We handle insurance claim work in West Wickham and leak detection in West Wickham. More on the area is on our West Wickham area page.

The boiler itself, if it needs attention, is a job for a Gas Safe registered engineer. We do not work on gas appliances.

Need a plumber now?

Call 07868 281022 and tell us your postcode, what you have noticed (meter moving, gauge dropping, damp patch), whether the water is off, and whether you have a claim number. We agree the price with you before any work starts.