Trace and Access: The Clause That Pays for Finding the Leak

What does trace and access pay for?

Two costs sit inside the clause: tracing, meaning the work of locating a leak that is hidden, and access, meaning opening up the structure to reach it and reinstating what was opened. The damage the escaping water caused is a separate claim under a separate clause.

The word hidden is doing real work in the clause. A visible drip under a basin is not a tracing cost, because nothing has to be located. A pipe inside a screed floor, inside a stud wall or under a suspended timber floor is concealed, and establishing which metre of it has failed is the expense the clause exists to meet.

Reinstatement is the half most policyholders overlook until the bill arrives. Lifting a screed floor is cheap next to laying a new one, and the clause covers putting back what was taken up to reach the pipe — not upgrading it, and not the rest of the room.

What does trace and access not pay for?

Three costs sit outside the words trace and access: the damage the escaping water caused, the repair of the pipe or fitting that failed, and anything beyond the limit printed on the policy schedule. The first of the three is the escape of water claim.

• The water damage itself. Soaked ceilings, ruined flooring and damaged belongings are claimed under escape of water, on that clause’s own limit and its own excess.
• The repair of the failed pipe. Remaking the joint is a maintenance cost carried by whoever owns the pipework, and no household clause pays for it.
• Anything above the printed limit. The clause states a maximum for one claim, and costs above that figure fall back on the policyholder.

Two further exclusions appear in most wordings and are read on the policy document rather than assumed here: gradual deterioration, where the escape has been happening slowly over a long period, and an unoccupied property beyond the number of consecutive days the wording names. Both are stated in the policy wording, which is the document that governs.

Where is the limit written down?

Two documents carry it: the policy schedule, which prints the figure and the excess for one policy, and the policy wording, which defines the clause and lists its exclusions. Neither is the insurer’s website. Both arrive with the policy and both are reissued at renewal.

The policy schedule is the personalised document naming the policyholder, the address, the period of cover and the figures that apply to that policy. The policy wording is the standard booklet defining every term the schedule uses. A limit read off the schedule and a definition read off the wording together answer the whole question; a figure quoted from a comparison site or an insurer’s marketing page answers none of it, because neither is a contractual document.

Both are supplied at inception, reissued at renewal, and replaced on request. Where a block of flats is insured by the freeholder, the schedule sits with the freeholder or the managing agent and a leaseholder is entitled to ask for the relevant extract.

Two clauses answer one incident, and the reason claims go wrong is that the reader treats them as a single question. The limits are separate, the excesses are separate, and the evidence each needs is not the same.

Is trace and access the same as the escape of water claim?

No. Escape of water is the claim for the damage the water did. Trace and access is the clause for finding the leak and reinstating what was opened to reach it. Two clauses, two limits, one incident, read on the same schedule.

Escape of water is defined in most wordings as water escaping from a fixed water or heating installation, and it answers for the resulting damage to the building and its contents. Trace and access answers for the investigative and reinstatement work that precedes the repair. A single burst pipe therefore produces two claim lines with two limits and, on many policies, two excesses.

The practical consequence is a sequencing one. A policyholder who lifts a floor first and claims afterwards has spent the access budget before the insurer has been told there was a leak, which is the commonest way a valid clause pays nothing.

What happens before anything is opened up?

Three steps come before a floor is lifted: notify the insurer of the escape, ask what the schedule states for trace and access, and record the position and the date the leak was found. A claim number is issued at the first step.

1. Notify the insurer that an escape of water has occurred, and obtain a claim number. Notification precedes investigation, not the other way round.
2. Ask the insurer what the schedule states for trace and access — the limit, the excess, and whether the insurer appoints the contractor or the policyholder does.
3. Record the date the leak was found, photograph the visible damage before anything is dried, and keep the written report naming the located position.

Who appoints the contractor is the question most worth asking at step two. Some insurers instruct their own network and decline invoices from anyone else; others reimburse a survey the policyholder arranged. The answer changes what happens next and it takes one telephone call to establish.

When is no policy clause engaged at all?

Two escapes engage no clause of yours, because the pipe is not yours: a leak on the communication pipe, running from the water main to the boundary stopcock, and a leak on a lateral drain, the water company’s since 2011. Report both to the supplier.

The communication pipe runs from the water main under the street to the boundary stopcock, and it belongs to the water company. Water surfacing in the footway, or a boundary chamber running with the internal stopcock closed, points at it. The company repairs it at its own cost and no household policy is engaged.

The lateral drain is the length of drain running from the boundary of a property to the public sewer. Ownership of lateral drains and private sewers connected to the public network transferred to the sewerage undertakers in October 2011 under regulations made pursuant to the Water Industry Act 1991. A blockage or collapse on that length is the water company’s to attend.

Sources for the statutory position, and the instruction that goes with them — read the current consolidated text before relying on anything stated here, because the legislation is amended:

• Water Industry Act 1991 — legislation.gov.uk. The parent Act under which the 2011 transfer regulations were made.
• The Water Industry (Schemes for Adoption of Private Sewers) Regulations 2011 — legislation.gov.uk.
• Your water company’s own sewer and pipework ownership diagram, published on its website and dated.

Where do you read your own clause?

Two sources, in this order: the policy schedule, which states the limit and the excess, and the policy wording, which defines trace and access and lists the exclusions. The insurer issues both at inception, reissues them at renewal, and supplies replacements on request.

Read the schedule for the figures and the wording for the meaning, in that order, because a limit without its definition is a number with no scope. Where the building is insured under a block policy, ask the managing agent for the schedule extract and the relevant wording section rather than relying on a summary.

This page states how the clause is structured in general terms. It is not legal advice and it is not advice on any particular policy. Your own policy schedule and policy wording override everything written here.

Related

• finding water without opening walls
• leak detection pricing and what your insurer usually covers
• making an escape of water claim without losing it