Why the bill gets there first
Water Corporation says it plainly — leaks are the most common reason for a high bill. What is particular about this suburb is that the leak usually gets to the bill before it gets to the surface.
Bull Creek sits on sand. A pipe losing water under a lawn, a driveway or a slab drains away into it without producing a puddle, a bog or a soft patch. In heavier ground you would have seen something months ago. Here there is nothing to see, so the quarterly statement does the job that a wet patch would have done anywhere else.
The housing stock adds to it. The suburb filled in through the 1970s, quickly after the Kwinana Freeway reached the area in 1976, so most of the buried pipework is forty-five to fifty-five years old. And with about 79% of occupied dwellings being detached houses, the private service run from the meter at the front boundary to the building is long — and every metre of it is the property owner's responsibility.
What the meter tells us
The meter is the first thing we look at when we arrive, and it settles the question quickly.
With the property shut down, a meter that keeps turning proves water is escaping and the rate it turns gives a rough sense of how much. A meter that sits perfectly still says the loss is not a continuous leak, and points instead at something intermittent — reticulation on a timer, a toilet that cycles, a pool top-up valve.
Either way it is a five-minute check for someone doing it with a shut-down property and something to compare against. You do not need to do it before ringing us, and there is no charge for us to do it.
From there the property gets split into sections — service line, cold internal, hot internal, garden taps, retic — and isolated one at a time until the meter goes quiet. Then that section gets pressure tested and listened along until the fault is marked on the ground. How the locating works
What usually turns out to be the cause
The buried service line
The long run from the meter to the house. The leading cause of an unexplained Bull Creek bill and the hardest one to see.
Reticulation
Only leaks while the system runs, usually early in the morning, then stops and hides. Very often blamed on the house for months.
A toilet cycling
Unglamorous, cheap to fix, and capable of putting a serious number on a quarterly bill on its own.
A leak under the slab
Warm floor, damp skirting, hollow-sounding tiles. Slab leak detection
A pool or its plumbing
Looks exactly like a household leak on the meter.
We would rather find one of the cheap ones. If the answer is a cistern rather than a buried main, that is what you will be told. Hidden water leaks
The allowance, and how to think about it
This is the part people do not know about, and it is worth knowing before you decide to live with a high bill for another quarter.
Water Corporation customers whose hidden leak is found and repaired by a licensed plumber may be eligible for an allowance of up to 50% of the estimated water lost.
Three things to be clear about.
Water Corporation decides
They set the eligibility conditions and they assess the claim. We do not, and nobody who tells you the allowance is guaranteed is being straight with you. Confirm it with them directly.
A licensed plumber has to have done the repair
Water Corporation's position is that for anything beyond a worn washer, a licensed plumber is required. Our plumbing licence is 8396.
The repair is what makes the question worth asking
Nobody gets an allowance for a leak that is still running. Getting it found and fixed is the step that puts the conversation on the table at all.
Who pays for the repair
The property owner. Water Corporation is responsible up to the meter. Everything on your side of it — the service line under the front lawn, the pipework under the slab, the taps and fittings — is yours to arrange and pay for.
If the meter itself is leaking, or the fault is on the street side of it, that one is theirs and you should ring them rather than us.
What it costs to get an answer
The call-out is $0. The quote is free and in writing, given once the leak is located rather than estimated against a guess. Transparent pricing, no hidden costs, and no obligation to proceed.
Plumbing licence 8396 and gas licence 13098, both held by Tim, who does the work. Based in Leeming, next door to Bull Creek. Monday to Friday, 7:00am to 4:00pm.
Stop the bill climbing
Tell us what the usage has done and we will call you back to arrange a time.