Made safe first, at any hour. Then, where it has crossed into another flat, written up properly while the evidence is still visible rather than after everything has dried out.
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A leak in a house is a repair. A leak in a six-pack is a repair plus a question about somebody else's ceiling, and the second part is usually the expensive one.
Water does not respect the boundary between two lots. It follows the fall of a slab or a joist and comes out wherever it can, which may be a floor down and a room across from whatever actually failed.
That makes the written finding as valuable as the repair. What component failed, where, whether it was that owner's pipework or the building's, and what the damage is. Recorded while it is still visible, because in a week it will have dried and become an argument.
We photograph and record before replacing anything, and we get you a repair figure quickly, so the committee can decide whether a claim is even worth making against the excess.
Stop it first, then get it documented today. A finding written a week later, after everything has dried, is worth very little to anybody.
Isolating the water does not require agreement from an owner, a committee or a strata manager. It is the one thing anybody can do immediately and it decides the damage.
So the order is water off, people below told, photographs, then the call. Not the other way around.
Find your flat's stop tap now rather than then. A great many residents have never located it.
Water travels along the fall of a slab, a joist or a cavity and escapes wherever it can, which in a walk-up is somebody else's ceiling.
It can also skip a floor entirely, appearing two levels down with nothing visible in between.
So the flat reporting it is usually not the flat it started in, and nobody should be allocating blame from a stain.
What failed, where, whether it was lot or common property pipework, and what it needs. That document is what a committee, a strata manager or an insurer can actually act on.
A resident's account of what a plumber said is not evidence and it does not move anybody.
In a small scheme with no professional management, it is frequently the only clear information anybody has.
Strata policies carry an excess the scheme pays, and in a small block that excess can be a meaningful fraction of the repair.
So a claim on a modest amount of damage can cost the scheme more in excess and future premium than paying for it directly.
That is a decision for the owners rather than for us, and we mention it because in a six-lot scheme it is a real question rather than an academic one.
Broadly, pipework serving only your flat is lot property and the owner's. The stack, the risers and the lines serving the building are common property.
That distinction decides who arranges the repair and who pays for it, and it is worth establishing before anybody is invoiced.
The written finding should say which it is, and ours does.
Close every tap and appliance and watch the smallest dial for two minutes. Movement means water is genuinely leaving on your side.
In older blocks the building is frequently on one meter, in which case the test tells you about the whole scheme rather than your flat.
Worth establishing which arrangement you have before relying on the result.
Having confirmed a loss, close the isolating valve feeding the hot water unit and take another reading. Two minutes, no tools, half the property eliminated.
Continued movement puts the fault on the cold side. No movement puts it in the unit or the hot pipework it feeds.
Look at where the relief valve discharges before concluding the tank is at fault, because a valve that has stopped sealing produces the same reading for a fraction of the cost.
Acoustic listening, thermal imaging and pressure isolation narrow a leak without touching the building, and all three work through a slab.
Opening a ceiling in somebody else's flat to look for something is disruptive, expensive and quite often reveals nothing but wet plaster.
In a scheme with no sinking fund, getting it right the first time matters more than usual.
Whoever assesses this later was not there, and afterwards it is a dry patch and a description.
Take the source if visible, the extent of the water, the affected surfaces and something showing the time.
In a strata building more than one party may need to understand what happened, which makes half a minute of photographs unusually valuable.
Five to ten years is their service life, and when one fails at mains pressure in an unoccupied flat it reaches every home below it.
They are inexpensive and quick to replace, and in a small scheme doing every flat at once is a genuinely sensible collective decision.
It is one of the very few things a six-lot building can do cheaply that materially reduces its risk.
Copper thins from the inside and eventually weeps rather than bursting. Galvanised narrows internally over decades with nothing visible from outside.
In a building where the original pipework was installed once for the whole block, it also ages as one, so a first failure is worth treating as information.
Neither announces itself, which is why the meter test matters more here than on anything modern.
A concealed leak repaired promptly by a licensed plumber may qualify for a bill adjustment through Sydney Water. Whether yours does is their determination, not ours.
What we can do is give you a clear record of what was found, where, and when it was put right.
Ask for it at the time rather than a month later. It costs nothing to produce then and cannot be reconstructed afterwards.
Strata policies carry an excess the owners corporation pays before anything is recovered, and across six lots that is a visible amount rather than a rounding.
So a claim on modest damage can cost the scheme more in excess and future premium than simply paying for the repair.
That is the owners' decision rather than ours. We mention it because in a small building it is a genuine question rather than an academic one.
In a self-managed scheme it is frequently whoever was secretary last, and in a professionally managed one it is the strata manager. Either way it is worth knowing before there is a problem.
Previous plumbing reports, camera footage and invoices are exactly what makes a recurring problem visible, and they are exactly what goes missing.
One folder, kept with the scheme's records rather than in somebody's email, is worth more than it sounds.
Agreed in writing before work starts. These are indicative 2026 ranges. Where more than one flat is involved the written finding is included, because that is what the scheme needs most.
Isolated and stopped, any hour, before anyone discusses whose pipework it was.
Pressure and acoustic testing to identify the component that actually failed.
Once located. Access moves this considerably more than the pipe does.
Per flat. The cheapest prevention available for the most expensive kind of claim.
Where more than one flat is affected. Written the same day, while it is still visible.
First, and without waiting on anyone's permission. Damage stops before ownership is discussed.
Photographed and documented while the failed component and the damage can still be seen.
Pressure and acoustic testing to the actual failure, then repaired at a price agreed beforehand.
Cause, origin, responsibility and cost, in a form an owners corporation or an insurer can use.
Ring now. We will tell you how to stop it while we are on the way, and warn you what to move before it reaches it.
Call 1300 381 569Two separate things, and it helps to keep them separate. First, stopping it, which is urgent and does not wait on anybody's permission. Second, working out what failed and whose pipework it was, which decides who pays. We do the first immediately and the second properly, and we write the second down while the evidence is still there, because within days it will have dried out and become an argument between neighbours instead of a fact.
Sometimes, and sometimes it costs more than it saves. Strata policies carry an excess the scheme pays, and in a small block that excess can be a meaningful share of the repair. A $3,000 repair against a $1,500 excess is often not worth a claim once you factor in what it may do to the premium. A $30,000 water damage bill obviously is. We give you the repair figure quickly so that decision can be made on real numbers rather than guesswork.
By isolating and testing rather than by looking at where the water came out. Water follows the fall of a slab, a joist or a wall cavity and appears wherever it can escape, which can be a room away or a floor down from the actual failure. We pressure test the lines, use acoustic equipment where the pipework is buried, and identify the specific failed component. That is what a cause-and-origin finding needs to be worth anything.
Whoever is on the committee, and in a self-managed six-pack that is usually two or three owners. What they need from you is not a description, it is a document. We provide a written finding stating what failed, where, whether it was lot or common property pipework, what the repair costs and what the damage looks like. That is what turns a neighbourly disagreement into something that can be resolved.
Making it safe, absolutely, and we would encourage it. Nobody should leave water running into a building while ownership is debated. The full repair is worth pausing on only long enough to establish the responsibility, because doing that afterwards is far harder once the failed component has been removed and the wall closed up. We photograph and record before we replace anything, for exactly that reason.
They are among the most common causes of serious water damage in Australian homes and they have a service life of about five to ten years. In a walk-up that matters more than in a house, because when one lets go on the top floor at mains pressure while nobody is home, the water goes through every flat beneath it. Replacing them across a block is a small, unglamorous job that prevents a very large claim.
An emergency make-safe is $250 to $500. Leak detection is $300 to $600. Repair once located is $400 to $1,200 for most jobs. A written cause-and-origin finding is included on any job involving more than one flat, because in a small scheme that document is worth more than the repair itself.
Tell us whether more than one flat is affected and whether the block has a manager. Those two answers decide what we document and who we write it for.
Made safe first, recorded before anything is replaced, and a repair figure fast enough to be useful to an insurance decision.
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