Frequently causing costly property damage, Escape of Water (EoW) remains a primary risk for asset holders in the living sector.
Undetected or ignored leaks can result in extensive building damage, prolonged disruption to residents, and reputational harm.
To help build resilience against a simple leak escalating into major remedial work, organisations must become proactive and enhance their asset monitoring and maintenance capabilities.
What causes leaks and EoW?
EOW incidents typically arise from plumbing, heating, and appliance failures. This can include burst or leaking pipes, defective seals on showers, baths, and sinks, or internal faults and loose connections in dishwashers, refrigerators, or washing machines.
Building-wide systems can also be a source of water damage. Leaks may develop at joints and valves within centralised heating or hot water systems, and risers may fail.
Living Sector: the acute risk to undetected leaks
For living sector properties, such as purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA), co-living, private rental schemes (PRS), and build-to-rent (BTR) buildings, the financial impact of a single, unnoticed leak can be catastrophic.
As living sector assets frequently experience periods of vacancy, refurbishment, or remedial work, landlords are vulnerable to minor damages becoming major losses. Furthermore, living sector assets contain high volumes of tenants that conduct unsupervised and repetitive use of plumbing fixtures and appliances, including communal, shared amenities that may be industrial grade and consume vast quantities of water.
A growing percentage of living sector assets utilise prefabricated bathroom pods and push-fit plumbing. Installation of these fixtures can be problematic and are typically in confined and concealed spaces, making leak events more common and harder to recognise.
EoW in the Living Sector: example scenario
The following hypothetical scenario explores how an undetected leak in the living sector can quickly spiral from a small issue into a large crisis for a landlord/property management company.
Company X owns a PBSA asset of 400 units, with an occupancy rate of ~90%. The asset is aged and over 18 metres in height, requiring remedial work on external cladding to satisfy requirements for the Building Safety Act 2022. Remedial works are scheduled to last ten months. The building is fully vacated for the duration of the works, and access to the residential accommodation is restricted to exceptional circumstances only. As a result, no routine inspections of individual apartments or internal communal areas are undertaken during this period. Around a month into the works, a leak originates from a mains pipe on the top floor. But the escape of water remains entirely undetected due to the prolonged vacancy and absence of routine inspections. After the remedial works are completed, Company X re-enters the property to begin working on moving tenants back in. However, they discover a leak that has raged unabated for almost nine months and has damaged each floor of the building. Upon assessment, the damage is found to be extensive, with repair and reinstatement costs estimated at approximately £18 million. The prolonged EoW has caused significant damage to walls, ceilings, flooring, insulation, fire compartmentation systems, and internal finishes. Mechanical and electrical services including power distribution, fire safety systems, security infrastructure, and data cabling also require substantial repair or replacement. Additionally, widespread mould growth and water contamination necessitates specialist drying, strip-out, and remediation works. The scale of damage drastically extends the period before residents can safely reoccupy the asset. And as repairs are carried out, Company X has to find suitable alternative accommodation for all students displaced. Tenants who have been deprived of access to their PBSA accommodation may also seek damages through legal action. |
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Building resilience to undetected leaks
The hypothetical example above illustrates how a small leak can quickly spiral into significant costs for a landlord.
This incident could have been negated through early, remote leak detection. However, some assets may not possess adequate asset monitoring capabilities, leaving them vulnerable to EoW incidents and reliant on human intervention on site.
Asset Connect, Lockton’s building management system (BMS) observer, integrates with a building’s BMS to visualise data on a secure online dashboard offering mapped insights and real-time alerts to identify anomalies and reduce risk.
Asset Connect captures leak detection data through direct signals, such as leak alarms or sprinkler flow, consumption signatures like unusually high or out-of-hours water usage, and often earlier, quieter indicators that only become visible when monitoring entire buildings rather than water systems alone.
Asset Connect’s algorithms combine multiple outputs ensuring a developing leak is corroborated across independent signals rather than inferred from a single reading.
Expansion within the Asset Connect® Ecosystem
We’ve developed the Asset Connect Ecosystem (opens a new window): a curated network of integrated risk technology and industry partners, helping property owners and operators to reduce the impact of key perils, including escape of water losses.
The Ecosystem launches with two best-in-class risk technology and mitigation partners, LAIIER (opens a new window) and Watergate (opens a new window) – proven solutions that help reduce the likelihood and impact of insurance losses. Each solution has been chosen following extensive due diligence, market research, and pilot testing, and works to equip facility management teams with a complete picture of a building’s protection against escape of water and associated risks.
LAIIER’s specialist solution utilises printed, non-invasive strip sensor technology, enabling early intervention that helps avoid innocuous leaks becoming seven figure losses.
By employing flow-based ultrasonic sensor technology, Watergate’s bespoke product monitors real-time water usage for automatic water shut-off that prevents property damage and helps meet sustainability goals.
Talk to us
Leak detection systems are becoming a key facet of property and organisational preparedness. Adoption of these measures is becoming a strategic choice for owners who want to future-proof their assets while enhancing resilience.
To learn more about what Asset Connect can offer you, reach out to a member of our team at LocktonAssetConnect@lockton.com (opens a new window)
For further information, please visit our Living Sectors (opens a new window) page or contact a member of the team.
