How LeakBot can help our customers

We have now been offering LeakBot to all of our Executive Home and Executive Plus customers for 2 years which has prevented damage to thousands of homes.

We originally started trial of Leakbot devices at the end of 2017 and in 2020 we expanded our HNW proposition to provide all open market customers with access to a LeakBot device free of charge. Fast forward to today and we have several thousand devices out there.

We recently carried out a deep dive on over 20 cases where our customers had received a notification of a potential leak from their LeakBot to assess whether this had prevented a more significant loss. With their reputation on the line, we tasked some of our most experienced members of the Claims teams to complete the evaluation.

Through machine learning LeakBot devices measure the water usage in the home and ambient temperature to detect a potential leak. Our general findings show that in the vast majority of cases, potential water leaks are detected shortly after the LeakBot setup process is completed.  And the 20+ cases continued that trend. In all of the cases the customer could not find any obvious signs of a water leak and made use of the free Find and Fix engineer service to investigate.

The most common causes of the leak notifications were due to; faulty ball valves in water storage tanks and cisterns, faulty installation of faucets and pipework joints, and general wear and tear of pipework. There were no catastrophic leaks discovered by the devices, only early stage leaks. Often these leaks had gone completely unnoticed and if they had continued to do so the potential for deterioration over time could have led to significant water damage in the customers’ homes. Had a customer been away when a leak started to cause visible damage the potential saturation damage could have passed through numerous areas of the home in what we would consider an extreme scenario.

So at this point you are probably wondering what the outcome of our review was. After taking a conservative approach to the review and purposefully not including a “worst case” scenario in the estimates, our Claims experts agreed that the early notification of a LeakBot saved an average of over £10,000 of damage in each case.

We recently received some glowing feedback from a customer who summarised their experience as:
“We had no idea what to expect of this technology and had only installed it within days of a minor leak being identified by it. Quite simply 5 stars is insufficient!”

If you want to see more feedback from LeakBot customers feel free to look at them on Trustpilot. And if your customers ask if there are any additional benefits to installing a LeakBot on their Covéa policy, here’s a reminder that we will:

• waive any excess associated with an escape of water for claim free customers or reduce a compulsory escape of water excess for customers who have suffered previous losses
• provide customers with an unlimited free Find & Fix service if the LeakBot detects any potential leaks
• not apply any premium loading at their next renewal in respect of any escape of water claims incurred after the LeakBot device is installed and activated.