Meter Q&A (Commercial) - South West Water

Help with Leakage
for Commercial customers
Water has a team of leak
detection inspectors monitoring
the water supply network and
they may also detect these signs
on a customer’s service pipe. If
a leak is found on your private
service pipe, whether it is found
by yourself or by a South West
Water leak detection inspector, it
is your responsibility to repair it.
For some older service pipes in
poor condition, it may be more
sensible to replace the service
pipe to prevent future leakage
and costs, rather than simply
repairing the leak.
Minimising water wasted
through service pipe leakage
Water escaping from a leak is a
loss of a valuable resource, so if
a leak is reported or detected on
your pipework we will ask the
customer to repair it. In the
event that a customer fails to
comply with such a request, we
can serve a legal notice requiring
a repair to be carried out. If this
is still not done we can carry out
the repair and recover our costs
from the person responsible for
the pipe paying the water
charges. In extreme cases where
escaping water is in danger of
causing damage or danger to
persons or property, we can turn
off the supply until a repair is
carried out. Where escaping
water is not causing a danger
and the loss is not causing supply
problems and is not judged to be
a severe loss of resource we
usually allow up to 30 days for a
leak to be repaired.
What can South West
Water do to help?
Free leak detection service
South West Water may be able to
offer commercial customers up to
one hour’s free leak detection
service for leaks on underground
service pipes. South West Water
will provide the service of a leak
detection inspector for up to one
hour free of charge to help
identify the location of a leak.
Please note that for leaks that
are difficult to locate and lengthy
service pipes it is likely that this
free hour will only be able to
confirm the presence of a leak
and provide some help and
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