Escape of water - Building a better future

Recent experience suggests 30% of all insurance claims in residential properties are due to damage caused by the escape of water. While fire caused by hot work associated with traditional plumbing methods was historically a serious risk for underwriters, modern practices involving plastic pipes have largely removed the fire risk during installation but replaced this with an increased risk of failure in usage. Add to this the recent credit crunch pressures encouraging corners to be cut to save money, and the risk of escape of water becomes more prominent and as increasing the cost for insurers.

Within new builds and major refurbishments, the move towards plastic piping with compression and push fit joints has provided benefits in terms of cost and ease of installation. It has also significantly reduced the fire risk associated with plumbing work, but the finished plumbing is not necessarily as robust as its metal predecessor.

Cutting corners

Plastic piping allows for much faster assembly times and when done correctly it will withstand the design pressures. However, time constraints associated with completion of new builds, a shortage of trained plumbers, and the economic pressures that contractors are under mean the job is not always done to the standard it should be. Workmanship failings mean that plastic pipes are not always cut to the correct size and so do not penetrate as far into the joint as they should, while hand tightened compression fittings are not always tightened enough to be effective. In the long term, poorly made joints will soon fail under pressure.

In the current economic climate, which has seen a collapse of the residential property market, more people are improving their existing properties instead of trying to move home. This trend has seen an increase in extensions and roof conversions, often to create additional en-suite facilities, bathrooms and wet rooms. Central heating installations are also being upgraded or replaced to meet the government's green agenda driven by the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive and the introduction of mandatory energy performance certificates for sales and lettings. All this recent activity makes the risk of a water escape claim much more likely.

It is not only the risk of resultant building damage that has increased; it is also the severity. Unlike traditional soldered joints, where a fault often resulted in a gentle oozing of water or a steady drip, if plastic pipes are not properly secured, these joints can separate completely, resulting in a sudden gush of water from an open pipe under mains pressure.

And if a failure occurs when the owners or occupiers are away from the property, a leak can be undetected for some time. At three-bar pressure, some 300 gallons of water would run from a 22mm pipe in 10 minutes.

The design of new buildings to higher standards of energy efficiency also has serious implications in terms of repair costs. Last year, flats and apartments accounted for more than 50% of all new build starts in the UK. The introduction of sound and thermal insulation in floating floor constructions has created gaps for water to penetrate and become entrapped, making drying out more complicated and protracted than in traditional buildings.

Weaker alternatives

Similarly, dry lining systems and insulated lightweight partitions may help speed up the construction process, but they are not as resilient to water damage as traditional masonry partitions and plasterwork. So a burst pipe can cause far more extensive damage than it would have done in the past.

Insurers must also understand that there is simply more plumbing in modern buildings. Pressurised wet heating systems, en-suite facilities and second bathrooms with pumped supplies to showers all present an increased risk.

To cite just one example of the destruction that can be wreaked by domestic plumbing, a five-storey block of flats was flooded with 700 litres of water a minute when a joint failed on a plastic pipe in the roof space. The water flowed for two hours causing damage to 30 flats; the worst affected tenants had to move into alternative accommodation, increasing costs by over 50%. The repairs took 18 weeks and the rest of the development must now be inspected to avoid further problems.

So how can the industry mitigate the risk from poor plumbing? The real difficulty for underwriters comes in gaining certification that plumbing work has been completed to a standard that can be relied upon. Although it is impossible to establish whether all joints have been adequately made, ideally an independent services engineer would do a visual inspection of the system as a whole to give an indication as to the general quality of the installation.

Delicate balance

However, getting such commitment upfront from developers and property managing agents is not easy. Indeed, if insurers' certification requirements are too stringent they face losing business in a market that is desperately competitive. So further work needs to be done between all the involved parties to ensure some meaningful certification of the plumbing is supplied and the costs involved are shared between the various parties.

Responding promptly to emergency situations can avoid massive repair costs. Providing emergency home assistance cover linked to a 24 hour helpline is one way of mitigating the loss. This is particularly important for managing agents dealing with blocks of flats where the cost of delay can be considerable.

People are becoming more reliant upon specialists to maintain and repair their homes. Many households lack the basic knowledge and skills to tackle maintenance tasks. It is no surprise, therefore, that when things go wrong, the public increasingly looks to their insurer to provide all the solutions.

Effective risk management of commercial property has proven to be a money saver in the long term. And insurers now need to work with the stakeholders to apply these principles to the domestic situation and push this higher up the priority ladder.

- Richard Ayton-Robinson is the home inspection services director at Cunningham Lindsey.