TERMS & CONDITIONS

Please ensure you read these terms and conditions before any work is undertaken. Upon The Leak Team’s arrival at your property, you will be asked to sign to confirm that you have read and understood these before any work is undertaken.

“NO FIND NO FEE” GUARANTEE REQUIREMENTS

Due to the complexity of heating systems and boilers and that these are often contaminated with rust and leak sealant, we do not generally carry out heating leak detection on a ‘No Find – No Fee’ basis. Please see paragraph 2 for more details.

All details of the property will be confirmed by email to the client before the visit, along with our terms and conditions for their agreement. If inaccurate information is given, we will charge our agreed rate for the services provided.

1 ACCESS REQUIREMENTS

a Please ensure floor areas are clear and uncluttered to enable maximum opportunity for visual inspection.

b If we are unable to access the floors due to excessive contents and / or heavy items, The Leak Team may be unable to carry out their work, however the full agreed rate will still be chargeable.

c Full and free access is required to all rooms and parts of the property. This may include adjacent property, eg in flats or shared accommodation. If access is not available or the leak is found to be beyond the physical boundary of the client’s property, our full agreed rate will be chargeable.

2 AGREED RATES & CHARGES

a Our ‘No Find No Fee’ leak detection is per visit for domestic customers only and is limited to the property’s hot and cold pipework and water mains where there is a water meter proving a significant loss, it excludes commercial leak detection as well as damp investigation, roof investigation and swimming pool leak detection. Additional charges such as mileage, travel, accommodation and parts are also excluded. Please note that due to the complexity of heating systems and boilers and that these are often contaminated with rust and leak sealant, we do not carry out heating leak detection on a ‘No Find – No Fee’ basis.

Northumbrian Water customers only: No Find No Fee on non-metered water leaks and drain / waste pipe leaks by agreement.

We will confirm if ‘No Find No Fee’ applies before the first attendance. The client will need to confirm that they agree with our terms and conditions, before we attend the property.

The Leak Team will be deemed to have been successful by finding one leak in the property, or by determining that there are no leaks on the system. If the leak disappears during our investigations our fee will still be payable.

b The charge for our standard domestic leak detection service is from £595+vat. This includes 1 days attendance (up to 8 hours) and the use of all our equipment. This service includes a report. The report will be emailed to all relevant parties upon receipt of cleared funds. The service does not allow for works to access the leak.

c If a report is required for insurance purposes, the charge for a standard leak detection service is from £595+vat. This includes 1 days attendance (up to 8 hours) and the use of all our equipment. The service does not allow for works to access the leak. The report will be emailed to all relevant parties upon receipt of cleared funds

d The charge for non-standard leak detection, damp investigation, drain and waste pipe investigation and all other services will be calculated on a case by case basis and agreed with the client before our attendance.

e Additional charges may be incurred for excessive mileage / travel / accommodation. This will agreed with the client before our attendance. Parking charges will be re-billed to the client at the time of our visit if no free parking is available. The client should make parking available in close proximity to the property and advise The Leak Team prior to their attendance if this not possible.

f If a system has a significant leak, there can on occasions be more than one leak. Each leak that is found needs to be repaired to make it possible to trace the next leak. If a temporary repair can be made at the same visit, the engineer will endeavour to trace additional leaks. If the engineer needs to return to the property on a different day, an additional fee will be incurred.

g Payment is due in full before the engineer leaves the property. This can be by credit or debit card, cheque or cash. Payment of our charges must be made in advance of our visit if the owner of the property or their legal representative is not going to be present at the time of our visit, eg in rented property, or if a friend / neighbour is allowing our access. If having made advance payment, we cannot find the leak and no charge would be due under our “No Find No Fee” guarantee, a refund will be made via the same means as the original payment. Please allow up to 5 working days for this to be processed.

h Additional fittings and valves may occasionally be required to enable The Leak Team to carry out their work. Temporary plumbing repairs may be carried out if possible to minimise disruption and to allow ongoing operation of heating systems. Materials for these works will be charged for in addition to our leak detection fee, if carried out during our attendance. Advice will be given on further repairs that are required. It is always advisable for the clients own plumber to make permanent repairs.

i Where an appointment has been made and confirmed by email from The Leak Team, the full charge will still be made if there is no one at the property and access is restricted, or if the customer refuses entry.

j Where an appointment is cancelled within 24 hours of the scheduled arrival time, The Leak Team reserve the right to charge a proportion of the attendance fee and associated costs incurred. Cancellations must be made in writing and receipt of the request will be acknowledged in writing.

3 LEAK DETECTION & PINPOINTING SOURCE

a The Leak Team undertakes non-invasive detection within the clients property, utilising thermal imaging, sound, moisture meters, endoscopes, gas trace along with other methods to pin point a leak.

If we need to cut holes, damaging the client’s property, this will be agreed before works commence. This may involve but is not limited to: lifting carpets, cutting holes in timber floors, breaking up screed. This damage may need to be made good by a third party at the client’s expense, or via their insurance policy.
b Some building materials and construction methods can skew the results obtained from our equipment and mean that the area identified as the location of the leak will be larger. EG impermeable layers of material blocking the leak detection gas. Wherever possible we will use alternative equipment to narrow down the leak location.

c The process of leak detection can cause leak sealing additive that has been introduced to the system to temporarily fix the leak. It is the responsibility of the client to inform The Leak Team engineer if leak sealing additive has been used. Properties where leak sealing additive has been used will not be covered by our “No Find No Fee” guarantee. The system may need to be flushed of the leak sealing additive, before the leak detection process can commence. If The Leak Team carry out this work, it will be charged in addition to the leak detection service.

d Where pressure testing determines there is no leak, we deem that leak detection has been successful and our agreed charge will still be payable. This also applies where the process of leak detection finds that there is a fault with the boiler, causing a drop in pressure, rather than a leak in the system.

4 REPAIRS & RECOMMISSIONING

a Temporary plumbing repairs may be carried out if possible to minimise disruption and to allow ongoing operation of heating systems. Materials for these works will be charged for in addition to our leak detection fee, if carried out during our attendance. Advice will be given on further repairs that are required. It is always advisable for the clients own plumber to make permanent repairs.

b Temporary repairs will be made to inspection and access holes where possible. Advice will be given on further repairs that are required. Damage may need to be made good by a third party at the client’s expense, or via their insurance policy.

c Upon request our engineer will refill and bleed air from a heating system where possible. It is recommended that the pressure in the system is monitored and that it is bled / topped up where applicable a week after our attendance to remove any remaining air. Please note a small amount of pressure loss following our attendance may be due to air in the system and not necessarily due to a leak. We recommend a chemical rust inhibitor be added to the system after it has been recharged; this will need to be done following the repair. The Leak Team can provide this service at an additional charge.

d Where a heating system will not work properly after leak detection has been carried out, this may require the attendance of a heating/boiler engineer. The Leak Team do not accept liability for works required from a system being drained for leak detection.

5 DAMAGE & LIABILITY

We do not accept liability for:

a Damage caused during our visit by using our standard equipment for the purposes of leak detection, damp investigation, drain & waste pipe investigation or any other operation for which we have been instructed.

b Damage caused by undetected leaks

c Failure of any temporary repairs made by The Leak Team

d Malfunction or failure due to works carried out during our attendance.

Where a client requests our re-attendance to further investigate a leak or leaks, we will re-attend providing that:

e The request is made within 2 weeks of the initial attendance

f No repairs have been made since our initial attendance

g No leak sealing additive has been used

If the findings from our initial visit prove to be incorrect, we will not charge for the additional attendance. If the findings from our initial visit are still valid we will charge for the re-attendance at the standard rate, plus any applicable expenses. If additional leaks are detected on the re-attendance, over and above the findings on the initial visit, we will charge for the re-attendance at the standard rate, plus any applicable expenses.

6 USE OF INFORMATION

a The Leak Team will not pass on clients details to any 3^rd parties for any purposes other than for the progression of the instruction or claim.

b The Leak Team reserves the right to use photographs and anonymous testimonials from clients for marketing purposes, unless expressly requested not to by the client.

c All photographs and reports remain the property of The Leak Team and their use and dissemination should only be with the written consent of The Leak Team.

d Clients should use written and verbal information provided by The Leak Team as guidance only. No guarantee is provided regarding the accuracy of information given.