Trace and Access Cover Explained: Limits, Refusals and How to Claim

Your boiler keeps losing pressure, a damp patch is spreading across the kitchen floor, and nobody can tell you where the water is coming from. Before anyone can repair the leak, somebody has to find it, and finding a hidden leak can mean lifting floors, opening walls or cutting into a concrete slab.

Trace and access cover is the part of a home insurance policy meant to pay for that work. It is one of the most misunderstood sections of a buildings policy and one of the most commonly capped, reduced or refused. This guide explains what the cover pays for, what the limits mean in practice, how to make a trace and access claim, and what to do if your insurer has refused or underpaid one.

What is trace and access cover?

Trace and access cover pays the cost of locating the source of an escape of water and getting to it so it can be repaired. It sits alongside the escape of water section of your policy rather than replacing it.

Trace and access cover typically pays for:

• A leak detection specialist to locate the source of the leak.
• The damage caused by the investigation itself, such as lifting a floor, opening a wall or ceiling, or excavating a slab.
• Reinstatement of the access opening once the leak has been repaired.

Trace and access cover typically does not pay for:

• Repairing the leaking pipe or fitting itself. That is normally a job for your plumber, at your cost.
• The water damage the leak has already caused to the building and contents.
• Leaks the insurer attributes to wear and tear or gradual deterioration rather than a sudden failure.

Trace and access vs escape of water: the difference that decides your settlement

These are two different sections of the same policy, with two different limits, and confusing them is where most disputes start.

Trace and access covers finding the leak and getting to it. Escape of water covers the damage the water did once it escaped: the drying, the repair and the reinstatement. The escape of water limit is usually far larger.

This matters because the cap on trace and access is not a cap on your whole claim. Where an insurer allocates drying and reinstatement into the trace and access section and then applies the trace and access cap to all of it, the settlement is substantially reduced. Whether that allocation is correct depends on the policy wording, and it is worth having the wording read before any figure is accepted. Our guide to escape of water claims covers the resultant damage side in full.

Does home insurance cover leak detection?

In most cases some cover exists, but the extent varies between insurers and between policies from the same insurer. If your policy covers the cost of finding the leak, it will usually appear as a trace and access section on your schedule or in the policy booklet.

Insurers handle leak detection costs in three broad ways. Some instruct their own leak detection service and settle that invoice directly. Some ask you to arrange the investigation and reimburse you afterwards. Some pay to repair the damage the leak caused but decline the cost of finding it, on the basis that the policy contains no trace and access section at all.

What is normally accepted: emergency response to control an active escape of water, professional diagnostic work to locate a hidden water leak including acoustic tracing, thermal imaging, tracer gas and moisture mapping, and the specialist equipment and time that work involves.

What attracts scrutiny: investigation carried out before the insurance company was notified, work by a contractor who hands over no formal report, and any element the insurer considers repair or improvement rather than access.

Where a leak is concealed behind walls, under floors or inside a slab, the investigation is expensive and disruptive, which is exactly why the cover exists. Our guide to what leak detection costs in the UK sets out the ranges. The important point is that where the leak is an insured escape of water, you may not be meeting that cost yourself.

Is trace and access the same as leak detection?

No. Leak detection is the service that finds the leak. Trace and access is the section of your insurance policy that may pay for it. You can have a water leak detection survey with no trace and access cover, in which case you meet the cost yourself, and you can hold trace and access cover in a policy without ever needing it.

Does home insurance include trace and access as standard?

Not always. Most UK home buildings insurance policies now include some form of trace and access cover, but it is not universal and the limits differ sharply. Check your schedule for a section headed trace and access or tracing and accessing, and check three things:

• Where it sits. Some policies place it inside a home emergency add-on rather than the buildings section, which changes both the limit and the conditions attached.
• What it covers. Underground pipes, central heating leaks and roof leaks are treated inconsistently between insurers. Water entering from outside through a defective roof is usually a different peril entirely, not a trace and access matter.
• Whether it is standard or optional. Some insurers include it, others offer it as an optional extra. Landlord insurance policies vary more than owner-occupier ones.

Always check your policy wording. The only figure that matters is the one on your own schedule.

What is the typical trace and access limit?

Almost every policy that includes trace and access applies a limit, and the limit is where shortfalls are created. Caps commonly sit between £5,000 and £15,000, and some policies apply considerably less. Many express the limit per claim rather than per policy year.

A straightforward leak under a suspended timber floor may cost well under the limit to investigate. A leaking pipe buried in a solid concrete slab is a different proposition: thermal imaging, acoustic tracing, removal of fitted units and floor finishes and controlled excavation can pass the cap on the investigation alone. Our guide on locating leaking copper pipes in concrete floors explains why.

How do I make a trace and access claim?

1. Turn off the water supply, or the heating system where pressure loss points there, to limit further damage.
2. Record what you can see: damp patches, staining, lifting floor finishes, a musty smell, unexplained pressure loss or a high water bill.
3. Notify your insurer promptly. Ask specifically whether the policy includes trace and access, what the limit is, and whether they require authorisation before a detection company attends.
4. Arrange a professional water leak detection survey and insist on a written trace and access report with readings and images, not just an invoice.
5. Keep every report, invoice and item of correspondence together, and make sure the cost breakdown separates access work from resultant damage.
6. Speak to us before you accept a settlement figure.

A trace and access report that shows the method used, in what order, and why a less invasive option was ruled out is the single most useful document you can put in front of an insurer.

Can I choose my own leak detection company?

Usually yes, and most policyholders are never told it. You can normally appoint your own leak detection specialist rather than waiting for one the insurer nominates, provided you meet any authorisation condition in the policy. A specialist who works to claim standards will produce the evidence the insurer needs: moisture mapping, thermal imaging, tracer gas results and photographs before and after opening up. The Downpatrick case study shows what a precise, non-invasive trace looks like on a real job.

Leak detection: PCLA covers Northern Ireland, where NI Leak Detection works alongside us. In Scotland, detection is handled by Leak Detection Stirling. PCLA does not offer no find, no fee. You get a free quote with all costs clear before any work starts, and where the leak is an insured escape of water the detection cost is often recoverable through the claim itself.

Why a trace and access claim gets refused, and what answers it

Insurers refuse or reduce these costs for a small number of recognisable reasons. Each can be answered with evidence where the facts and the wording support it.

• “The policy limit has been reached.” Establish what has actually been charged to the limit. If drying and reinstatement have been allocated to trace and access, challenge the allocation before arguing the limit.
• “The investigation was not necessary.” Answered by the detection methodology: what was tried, in what order, and why excavation became unavoidable.
• “We do not accept the report.” Answered technically, with readings, thermal images and confirmation that the pipe was found where the report predicted.
• “This is water ingress, not escape of water.” Trace and access sits with the escape of water peril. Where the source is internal, the report should say so explicitly.
• “There is no insurable event.” Usually a wear and tear argument. Evidence of when the problem appeared, when it was reported and what was found at the pipe is central.
• “The wording excludes it.” Some policies genuinely leave a shortfall. Not every refusal can be overturned, and it is better to know early.

If your insurer issues a final response you do not accept, you can refer the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service free of charge, generally within six months. The more useful point to intervene is earlier, before you accept a settlement figure, because once a figure is accepted the room to revisit how costs were allocated narrows considerably.

Case study: a hidden leak under a concrete floor in Lisburn

Lisburn, Northern Ireland, 2025. The boiler kept losing pressure with no visible leak. Detection traced it to a central heating pipe leaking inside a solid concrete floor. Reaching it required thermal and acoustic investigation, removal of the fitted units and floor finishes, and controlled excavation of the slab. Trace and access costs came to £8,240 against a £5,000 policy limit, and the insurer treated the investigation, excavation, drying and reinstatement all as trace and access costs, offered the £5,000 cap and declined the balance.

PCLA separated the costs line by line into access work and resultant damage. The insurer paid the £5,000 cap under trace and access, then accepted the remaining £3,240 of access costs and £12,680 of drying and reinstatement as resultant damage under the escape of water section, which carries its own limit. Final settlement: £20,920.

The cap was never the obstacle it appeared to be. What changed the outcome was establishing which costs belonged under which section. Every claim turns on its own wording and facts, and we cannot promise a particular figure.

Frequently asked questions

When to speak to PCLA

PCLA are independent loss assessors. We act solely for policyholders, never for insurers. That is the difference between an assessor and the loss adjuster your insurer appoints: the adjuster is instructed by the insurer, we are instructed by you.

On a trace and access claim we assess the damage, evidence the claim, manage the process and negotiate the settlement, including how costs are allocated between the trace and access and escape of water sections. A refusal or a low first offer is not the end. In Belfast we took an escape of water claim from a £6,000 offer to £73,000 plus alternative accommodation. In Omagh we recovered £17,000 on a claim the insurer had already declined.

The best time to call is before you notify your insurer, or before you accept a settlement figure, while the scope of the claim can still be shaped. A short call costs nothing and commits you to nothing. PCLA explains its fee and terms clearly before appointment: 10% of the final settlement plus VAT.

Northern Ireland: 028 9581 5318 · Scotland: 0141 461 2406