Water leak rebate

[woolybanana]

If you have a leak and are informed by the water company you can get most of the 'extra' bill back. Here is an example

My little bird was informed by letter by the local water board (SAUR) that she had an unusually high water comsumption last year and did she have a leak.

If so, she had a month to get it fixed properly and if she did so, she could be rebated legally under la loi Weismann.

The letter went to London which reduced the time somewhat.

Wooly hoofs it over to her place and turns on water ( which is always turned off when the house is not in use) and yes, the meter was indeed turning slowly but inexorably.

So, now less than three weeks left to get it sorted. Off to local plumber who confirms it is a baddish leak; he locates it somewhere in the main pipe between the meter and the point which it enters the house. This pipe is under the house somewhere.

Solution, new pipe at the side of the house which needs a trench; he knows thw good man to do it and will set it up.

Days pass, nothing happens; plumber is waiting for the digger man to give him a price. Wooly gets on blower, gets them together, meeting at site, solution agreed.

Couple of days pass; phone digging man who is hassled out and gets it done (Wooly had to be away); plumber comes in next day and gets new pipe laid, finishing final connection next day.

Wooly returns gets bill paid up and a letter to say what has been done and where for the SOAR, which letter must have his SIRET number.

All paperwork sent recorded delivery to SAUR before the one

month deadline. Phone to make sure it has arrived.

" Ah, but you must fill out the questionnaire"

"What questionnaire?"

"We haven't sent it yet."

" Can you email it?"

"Duh"

It arrives and requires exactly the same information as the already sent paperwork (plus the latest meter reading). Sent back, duly completed.

After Jan 1st, fone them to be sure

"We haven't had the questionnaire"

Much gnashing of teeth; it was the only document not sent by recorded delivery. Have the little ruggers chucked it in a biin.

"Can we bring you a copy?"

Definitely not keen.

"What are the opening hours"

Early that morning, so very early that the dogs would not get up, we squittered over there. Charming lady comes and sees us.

"Yes we have the form now, thank you. We had not yet opened that batch of post."

(It had been posted over two weeks previously, but Xmas/NY post...)

"Yes you will get back all the extra minus twice the average bill for the last three years.

This morning, written confirmation that for a bill of 600 odd euros birdie will be getting 500 odd back.

Not a bad result.

Of course, there was the cost of the plumber and the digger but as I know them both, they did not charge the foreigner tax.

Lessons? Keep and eye on your water meter and bills. Any sudden rises could be a leak. Check the meter itself and see if the little whizzy thing is whizzing when you aren't using water.

Get you bills sent where you can get them; have a good plumber handy and preferably someone who can lean on him if you are away.

Check the water company has a full dossier. Send all correspondence recorded delivery.

Remember, they only check the water meter once a year now (the other bill is estimated) so you could have a hefty bill if you are not looking.

It seems you have to pay the extra amount before getting it back so how people manage who dont have that in the bank, I just dunno. There must be a mechanism for sorting that.

There may be a way of doing to repairs yourself but that would have to be checked with your water company as it may vary locally.

And please dont put pipes under the house, have a pipe plan.

Hope you never have it happen!

[NormanH]

You were lucky.

I had a bill for 3500€ because some lodgers hadn't reported the fact that their toilet flush was running continually.

I had an extra insurance specially for leaks on top of my normal house insurance, but they tried to wriggleout of it because the insurance was for a leak, but this was an 'appareil'..

I finally managed to get 1000€ out of them but not until I had paid up the total and not until 18 months later.

The Lyonnaise des Eaux refused ANY reduction despite the above law..

[vette]

I wish I had known about that last year Wooly.

Our SAUR man read the meter and asked if I had a leak as the reading seemed higher than normal.

No, I said, no leaks.

Then I remembered that after leaving the place for a couple of weeks, one of my irrigation timer batteries had gone flat just after it had turned on. So for the best part of that two weeks my borders were being constantly watered.

The weeds loved it!

[Martin963]

Of course it may not be universal, but on our system (hole in garden with concrete lid) there is a very simple stop-valve the supplier's side of the meter. It's a quarter-turn jobbie. This in addition to taps our side of the meter.

In our case this offers added protection for when we are away. We turn it off and then bleed down the whole of the rest of the system

Glad your story had a relatively happy and non-costly ending.

[AnOther]

As I understand loi Weismann and subject to various conditions the basic principal is that you should never have to pay more than 2x your normal bill and under that coughing up €600 only to get €500 refunded is perverse.

I sympathise Norman however regardless of the circumstances I can't see how a leaking toilet

cistern can possibly be the water suppliers responsibility and €3500 is a LOT of water even at main drainage prices.

[woolybanana]

The letter from the water company specifically excluded paying out in the case of appliances such as washing machines. I guess they treated the cistern as such.

It means they wont pay out for what can be seen as human error but will rebate for dodgy pipes.

That was a heck of a lot of dosh to have to find, Norman; I bet the old begging bowl was shaking hard that week and that you did double shifts outside the local Carrefour.

[Loiseau]

AnO, speaking as the birdie concerned in the OP, the water board was very specific that if they were going to be generous enough to apply the Loi Whatsit, it could only be applied once. So if I am unlucky enough to have this happen again, I would have to pay the full whack. I am going to be a paranoid watcher of that meter in the water hole from now on!

As an aside, the blessed wooly one and I wondered if the water board could actually have been to blame for the leak... There is a fire hydrant between my house wall and the road, and it has been changed for a more modern one just over a year ago. Subsequently there was water gathering in the roadway, and my neighbour called in the water board to look at it. Seems to be fixed now. But might the water board have also damaged my own water pipe as it ran between meter and house? As I had no idea where it ran - and the recent plumber has decided to make a bypass in order to fix my leak - we will never know.

Anyway, watch your meters regularly, folks!

[AnOther]

Having been stung for about €1000 myself - pre loi Whatsit - I do tend keep a close eye on my meter !

My leak turned out to be under the garage floor and there was less than zero chance that I was going to dig that up so I broke into it outside and  ran in a complete new pipe from there in through the garage wall then up and across at roof height.

It was also an opportunity to fit a stop cock inside the house and an outside tap which carries the full 8 bar pressure !

[Loiseau]

Well, I seem to have acquired a stop tap thingy INSIDE the house now, but I don't reckon I should count on that to preserve me from future leaks, as the recent one was between the meter and the house.

An unwanted corollary has been that I have LOST my two hose points outside the house - obviously these must have run off the now-bypassed leaking pipe, and the new plumber didn't realise. ...SIGH...