Is it worth having Trace and Access Cover?

Water leaks can cause extensive damage to your property, ranging from the ruin of ceilings, floors, and walls to potential harm to possessions and even electrical fittings. Recognising this destructive impact, many home insurance policies now incorporate or provide the choice of Trace and Access Cover, a term insurer’s use to refer to the process of locating and pinpointing a leak within a domestic property.

Amidst the escalating rise in cost of living, it’s understandable you may be seeking to budget wisely, prompting the question… Is Trace and Access Cover worthwhile?

The cost of locating and repairing water leaks varies based on the extent of the damage. Severe leaks can lead to rotting floorboards and joists through water damage, emphasising the importance of locating and addressing leaks as soon as possible to prevent further harm.

However, finding a leak isn’t always straight forward, as it could be concealed within the structure of your home. Water pipes run under floorboards and water leaks from fixtures like your bath, shower, toilet, and taps may go undetected for quite some time.

Whilst a damp patch on the ceiling, if promptly rectified, can usually be quickly resolved; if the ceiling begins to sag, it may require a full re-plastering, typically accompanied by a hefty remedial bill. It could take weeks or even months before water leaks become evident, so by the time you locate a source, a great deal of damage could have been caused.

Although coverage and excess may differ among providers, many individuals consider Trace and Access Cover a worthwhile investment, to avoid the risk of a substantial bill in the unfortunate event of a leak.

How having Trace and Access cover can benefit you

Trace and Access cover is an additional part of your home insurance policy that covers the cost of detecting where a water leak is coming from using specialist equipment. The insurer will usually instruct their approved leak detection service provider, or they may ask you to find an authorised and regulated company that is local to you.

Not all home insurance policies include Trace and Access cover, which would mean if you had a water leak but cannot identify the source, you would need to pay a Trace and Access company to discover where the leak is coming from yourself.

In cases where a leak is under floorboards, to find the exact location and fix a leak, a plumber would usually need to take up the flooring and floorboards first and this could incur the costs of replacement flooring and increase labour costs, as well as the cost of repairing the leak.

If your home insurance policy is up for renewal soon, you should certainly consider taking out a policy that includes Trace and Access, to help protect you from the unexpected costs you could face if you need to pay for Trace and Access services.

This will also help to ensure that if you do have a leak that you cannot locate, the insurer will be able to immediately instruct their Trace and Access specialists so that they can use specialist tools such as thermal imaging and acoustic equipment to pinpoint the source of the leak.

By using these expert services, there will be a minimum amount of damage caused to your home, as the leak will quickly and accurately get identified and repaired, preventing further damage to your property structure, flooring, furniture, or belongings. It should also ensure that expensive work such as pulling up flooring and floorboards will only be done if completely necessary, rather than as a process of checking several different possible places to see where the leak is coming from.

For those looking to take a out a new insurance policy with Trace and Access Cover, Defaqto is a resource which provides an independent assessment of quality for insurance providers. Always do thorough research and select a policy which provides comprehensive coverage to avoid being caught out.

Save on water bills

Statistics provided by Ofwat suggest approximately 20% of water carried through pipes in the UK is lost due to leaks from burst or broken pipes and fixtures, highlighting the prevalence of leaking pipes within our water infrastructure.

If there is an undetected leak in your home, as well as causing water damage, you will be paying higher water bills. At a time when energy and water bills are increasing at an alarming rate, paying more than you need to for your water is going to make bills even less manageable.

When you have a home insurance policy that includes Trace and Access cover, if you notice an unexplained increase in your water usage, then you can get this investigated. If you contact your home insurance company and explain the water usage increases, they will ask a few questions to determine whether it is likely to be caused by a water leak.

For example, having guests staying with you could lead to increased water usage, so they will want to dismiss other reasons for a sudden increase in water usage before instructing a Trace and Access company.

Rainbow Restoration provides a specialist Trace and Access service, using industry leading leak detection equipment, helping homeowners and insurers to resolve water leaks quickly, at minimal costs. Call us on 01623 422488 to learn more.

Updated: 02/01/24