Leak detection in Perth: Water Corporation's leak allowance

Perth has one water utility for the whole metropolitan area and one leak allowance, and it is built around a threshold: the bill has to be big enough to qualify. Water Corporation refunds up to half the water lost to a hidden leak, but only where the water use charge was over $250 or the usage over 150 kL, the leak was fixed within 60 days, and you apply within six months.

Water Corporation’s leak allowance

The threshold means a small hidden leak caught early may not qualify at all, which is a reason to fix it quickly rather than wait for the bill to grow. The 60-day repair window is longer than the others in the national table; the six-month application window is also among the longer ones. What is not covered is everything around the water: the plumber, the detection, the repair.

Testing for it first. Water Corporation’s own test: note the 3 red numbers on the meter, use no water for 15 minutes, and look again. If the meter has moved, there may be a leak. Check the obvious places first — cisterns, taps, the hot water relief valve, irrigation — because a leak you could see is not a hidden one.

A worked example shows how the rules interact. A concealed leak in the supply pipe under a driveway shows up as a water use charge well over $250 on the next bill. The clock now runs: 60 days to have a licensed plumber find and repair it, then up to six months to lodge the form with a digital copy of the invoice. Water Corporation then estimates the water lost and may allow up to half of it, case by case, deciding within 20 business days. The plumber’s bill, any detection fee and the cost of reinstating the driveway are not part of it. If the same leak had been found when the charge was $180, the allowance would not apply at all, because the bill would be under the threshold — and the cheaper outcome is still to have found it then.

The allowance also reaches irrigation: a leak in a reticulation system repaired by a Waterwise Garden Irrigator can qualify, under the same rules. What it does not reach is a leak you could reasonably have seen, such as a running cistern or a dripping tap.

Whose pipe, and who pays

So the detection, the plumber and the repair are the owner’s; the allowance offsets part of the bill. hipages publishes leak detection at $168 to $400 nationally, indicative. A leak detector’s written report of where the leak was and how it was found is worth asking for, because the invoice is the evidence the allowance needs.

If it has already damaged the house

Where a house is slab-on-ground with cavity brick walls, a supply leak can run under the slab or into a cavity long before it shows. That is a drying job on top of the plumbing: the Perth page covers cavity brick. Perth’s winter mornings are its dampest, at 82% in July mean 9am humidity, which slows drying. The water damage can be a listed event as an escape of liquid (Insurance Contracts Regulations 2017 (Cth) reg 19(1)(a)(vi)); the failed pipe is where Insurance Contracts Regulations 2017 (Cth) reg 19(2)(b) applies. The national leak guide compares every utility.

Common questions