Is trace and access included in every home insurance policy?

No. It is a separate head of cover, frequently capped, and absent from some policies entirely. The Financial Ombudsman has considered cases where a policy covered escape of water but not trace and access, and did not treat that as an unusual restriction. Read the schedule before instructing anyone.

Does trace and access pay for repairing the pipe?

Almost never. It pays for finding the leak, getting to it and making good the opening. The plumbing repair itself is normally your cost, which is why it is worth knowing the hourly rate before the work starts.

Can I claim trace and access if there is no damage yet?

Often not. Many policies engage the cover only where there is damage to the buildings caused by the escape of water, so a leak that has cost you water but not damaged anything may fall outside it. Check the wording, and note that a water company leak allowance is a separate route on supply pipe losses.

Do I have to use the insurer’s approved contractor?

Some policies give the insurer the right to nominate one, and using their network usually avoids you paying upfront. Where you can choose, the insurer will normally want the scope and cost agreed before work starts.

How long does a detection visit take?

It depends on the size of the property and how many services have to be isolated and tested. Most domestic visits are a matter of hours rather than days, and because the rate is hourly you are told at each stage what has been ruled out and what is left.

Trace and Access Plumber: What to Ask For

Ask four things before you book: is the detection non-invasive, do I get a written report with readings and images, who puts the floor or ceiling back, and what happens to the bill if the leak is not found.

Leak Fix LondonLast updated 19 September 2026

Flooring and plaster being made good after a leak repair

What trace and access cover pays for

Trace and access is a specific head of cover, not a synonym for the whole claim. It pays for the cost of finding the source of an escape of water and getting to it: the survey, and the damage caused deliberately in reaching the pipe, plus putting that damage right. It does not pay for the plumbing repair itself, which is generally your cost, and it is separate from the escape of water cover that pays for the damage the water did.

Cost	Usually falls under
Finding the leak: survey, detection, report	Trace and access, where the policy includes it
Lifting the floor or opening the ceiling to reach it	Trace and access
Putting that opening back: screed, boards, plaster, tiles	Trace and access
Repairing the failed pipe or fitting	You. Almost no policy pays to mend the pipe
Drying, and repairing what the water damaged	Escape of water cover on the buildings policy
Ruined furniture, appliances, belongings	Contents policy, if you have one

Check your schedule before you instruct anybody. Trace and access is commonly capped at a figure separate from the main sum insured, and the NRLA's guidance on escape of water claims warns landlords specifically that trace and access cover "does not come as standard on all landlord policies". The Financial Ombudsman has also looked at cases where a policy covered escape of water but not trace and access at all, and treated that restriction as neither unusual nor significant enough to require special highlighting at the point of sale. In other words: it is on you to read the schedule.

The four questions

1. Is the detection non-invasive, and what methods do you use?

You are looking for a firm that finds the leak before it opens anything. That means acoustic listening on pressurised pipework, thermal imaging to follow runs through screed and tile, moisture mapping to find the shape of the wetting, pressure testing to confirm and size the loss on each circuit, and tracer gas for what the rest cannot reach. If the answer to "how will you find it" is "we will have a look under the floor", you are paying someone to search by demolition, and the access element of your claim gets much harder to justify.

2. Do I get a written report, and what is in it?

Ask specifically for pressure test figures, moisture readings with a dry reference, dated photographs and thermal images with the scale visible. What an insurer-ready report contains sets out the full list. A firm that cannot describe what goes in its report before the visit will not produce a useful one after it.

3. Who puts the floor back?

The question most people do not think to ask, and the one that causes the most grief. A detection-only firm finds the leak and leaves. Then you need a plumber for the repair, and then a screeder, a tiler, a plasterer and a decorator, each booked separately, each blaming the last. Ask whether the same company carries out the repair and the reinstatement, and what "reinstatement" includes: screed, boards, plaster, tiling, flooring, decoration. Our trace, access and reinstatement covers all three stages with in-house trades, which is the reason this site exists.

4. What happens if you do not find it?

Get this in writing before the visit. Our answer is no find, no fee: if we do not locate the leak, you do not pay for the time we spent looking. Not everyone works that way, and an hourly rate with no such term means an unsuccessful day is still an invoice.

Questions worth adding

What is the rate, and is it fixed before you attend? Ours is a single hourly rate, agreed in advance and published on our pricing page. The rate cannot move; the total depends on the hours, and nobody can honestly quote the total before they know what they are looking for. Be wary of a firm that quotes a whole-job price sight unseen and equally wary of one that will not commit to a rate at all. See pricing.
Will you invoice my insurer directly? Some will, most want paying and leave you to claim. Know which before the van arrives.
Will you talk to the loss adjuster? Useful, and a firm confident in its findings will.
Who attends? The person holding the thermal camera should be the person who writes the report.
What if the leak is not on my pipework? A good survey should be able to say that the loss is on a communal riser, on the supply pipe outside, or not a plumbing leak at all. That is a result, not a failure.

Things that should make you stop

A quote for a fixed total before anyone has seen the property or asked what the symptoms are.
A refusal to put the no find, no fee terms in writing.
"We will need to lift the floor to see" as the opening method rather than the last resort.
A report promised "on the day" before the readings exist, or an offer to word the report to suit the claim. A report written to please an insurer is worthless to you the moment it is tested.
Pressure to commit while the engineer is standing in your hall.

When you do not need a trace and access specialist

If the source is visible, you need a plumber, not a survey. A weeping compression joint under a sink, a split flexible tap connector, a radiator valve dripping onto a floor you can see, a shower seal that has failed along a visible line: photograph it, get it fixed, claim for the damage if there is any. There is no access cost to claim because nothing has to be opened, and a detection visit on a leak you can already point at is money you will not recover.

Call a specialist when the water is arriving somewhere other than where it is escaping, when the meter moves with everything off, when boiler pressure drops with nothing visible, or when a ceiling is wet and the room above is dry. Before you do, document what you can see, because the photographs taken on day one are the ones nobody can take again.

Frequently asked

Is trace and access included in every home insurance policy?: No. It is a separate head of cover, frequently capped, and absent from some policies entirely. The Financial Ombudsman has considered cases where a policy covered escape of water but not trace and access, and did not treat that as an unusual restriction. Read the schedule before instructing anyone.
Does trace and access pay for repairing the pipe?: Almost never. It pays for finding the leak, getting to it and making good the opening. The plumbing repair itself is normally your cost, which is why it is worth knowing the hourly rate before the work starts.
Can I claim trace and access if there is no damage yet?: Often not. Many policies engage the cover only where there is damage to the buildings caused by the escape of water, so a leak that has cost you water but not damaged anything may fall outside it. Check the wording, and note that a water company leak allowance is a separate route on supply pipe losses.
Do I have to use the insurer’s approved contractor?: Some policies give the insurer the right to nominate one, and using their network usually avoids you paying upfront. Where you can choose, the insurer will normally want the scope and cost agreed before work starts.
How long does a detection visit take?: It depends on the size of the property and how many services have to be isolated and tested. Most domestic visits are a matter of hours rather than days, and because the rate is hourly you are told at each stage what has been ruled out and what is left.

Sources

No find, no fee · £150 per hour. The rate is fixed before we attend and does not rise for a difficult property, an awkward access or an evening visit. The total depends on how long the job takes; the rate cannot change.