Escape of water excess: why it is higher, and what you pay

Escape of water usually carries its own excess, set higher than the one on the rest of your policy. Insurers do that because it is the claim they see most often and one of the most expensive to put right. This page explains what you will pay, whether you pay it twice, and when the excess makes a claim not worth making.

What is the escape of water excess?

An excess is the fixed amount you agree to pay towards any claim, deducted from the settlement rather than invoiced to you. The escape of water excess is the version of that applied to water escaping from something inside your home: pipes, tanks, a heating system or a plumbed-in appliance.

Two things make it different from a standard excess. It is often a larger figure, and it is often listed separately on your schedule from the excess that applies to everything else. So a policy can carry a modest general excess and a much larger one that applies the moment the cause of the claim is a leak.

You will find it on your policy schedule, the personalised document that lists your cover and sums insured, rather than in the policy booklet. If the schedule lists an "escape of water excess" or a "water damage excess" as its own line, that is the figure that applies to a leak, whatever the general excess says.

Why is the escape of water excess so high?

Because escape of water is the claim insurers see most often, and it is expensive every time. The excess is a frequency control rather than a judgement about you.

Escape of water accounted for 28.63% of home insurance claims declared in 2024, the largest single category, ahead of accidental damage at 26.33% and storm at 13.50%. On value, the ABI put the average claim for damage from flooding, storms and burst pipes at £8,548 in the second quarter of 2026, 12% higher than a year earlier, and one insurer puts its own average escape of water claim at £8,595 across three years of claims.

Put those together and the peril that arrives most often also costs several thousand pounds a time. A higher excess pushes the small claims out of the system, which is why the increase has landed on this peril rather than across the policy.

There is a second reason worth knowing, because it affects you directly. Insurers often raise the escape of water excess at renewal on a policy that has already claimed for a leak, or on an older property with original pipework. If your excess has jumped and nothing else has changed, that is usually why.

How much is the excess, and which type applies?

Three different excesses can appear on one schedule, and they stack rather than replace each other. Read your schedule against this before you assume a figure.

Amounts vary widely between insurers, and a few hundred pounds is common on escape of water, typically more than the general excess on the same policy. Some policies go considerably higher on older properties. We do not publish a single figure here because no one collects a reliable market average for it, and your schedule is the only authoritative answer.

Do you pay the excess twice on one leak?

Sometimes, and it is worth settling before you agree a figure. A leak that soaks the plaster and the sofa beneath it touches both buildings and contents cover.

On a combined buildings and contents policy, many insurers apply a single excess to the whole claim. Where the two sections carry their own excess on the schedule, or where buildings and contents sit with different insurers, two excesses can apply. In a leasehold flat the freeholder holds the buildings policy, so their excess and yours are separate claims entirely.

Ask the insurer to confirm in writing how many excesses it is applying and against which section. A settlement quietly netted down by two excesses instead of one is worth querying.

Is it still worth claiming after the excess?

The excess is only half the calculation. The other half is what the claim does to your premium at renewal, and a small claim can cost more over a few years than it returns.

The arithmetic below uses an illustrative £450 excess and an illustrative £70 a year premium effect held for five years, which is roughly £350 of future cost. Your own numbers will differ, and the shape of the answer rarely does.

The rule that falls out of it: below about twice your excess, think hard. Above three or four times, the claim usually pays for itself. Our guide to how much home insurance goes up after a claim works through the premium side, and our FAQ on whether it is worth claiming covers the situations where you should claim whatever the sum says.

Can you get the escape of water excess back?

Not from your own insurer on a fault claim, but often from whoever caused the leak. If the water came from a neighbouring property, a landlord's pipework or a tradesperson's mistake, your insurer can pursue them for what it paid out. That process is called subrogation and it runs in the background without holding up your repairs.

Where the recovery succeeds, your excess is usually refunded and the claim is recorded as non-fault, which is rated far more gently at renewal. Three things help:

• Tell the insurer at the outset that another party may be responsible, and give it their details.
• Keep the evidence of where the water came from, as the evidence checklist sets out.
• Ask later whether recovery was pursued and what the outcome was. A claim still recorded as fault after a successful recovery is worth asking to have corrected, because it follows you across the market for years.

Where the leak came from a flat above, the liability question is more involved. See a leak from the flat above.

Can you reduce the excess?

You can remove or reduce a voluntary excess at renewal, at the cost of a higher premium, and that trade is worth doing deliberately rather than by default. A large voluntary excess is a false economy on a policy whose most likely claim is a leak.

The compulsory and peril-specific excesses are the insurer's to set, and the lever there is the market rather than negotiation. Excess levels on escape of water vary between insurers, so it is worth comparing the excess as well as the premium when you shop, especially if you have claimed for a leak before. Check the sum insured while you are there, because underinsurance costs far more at claim time than any premium saving.

What if the insurer applies an excess you did not expect?

Ask for the schedule page that shows it and the policy term it relies on. Excess disputes usually come down to one of three things: an escape of water excess the policyholder did not know was separate, two excesses applied to a single event, or an excess increased at a renewal that was never clearly communicated.

If the answer does not match your documents, that is a complaint. Put it in writing, and if the insurer's final response is still wrong, the Financial Ombudsman Service will look at it for free. It upheld 38% of buildings insurance complaints in 2025/26, against 30% across all financial products.

We are not an insurer, a loss adjuster, or regulated by the FCA. Figures marked as illustrative are worked examples, not forecasts. This page is general information, not financial or legal advice. Excess levels are set by your policy, so always check your own schedule.

Common questions