Residential water-damage claims have spiked by around 70 per cent over the past five years – and new research has found it’s thanks to old plumbing left unchecked.
An analysis from plumbing firm Gemark Consultancy has found around one third of homeowners have discovered severe plumbing or drainage problems after their property’s settlement, despite a successful building inspection.
In states such as Queensland, plumbing systems were perfectly functional at the time of a property’s handover, only to later show their flaws during heavy rainfall, excavation or full-time occupancy.
Plumbing and drainage problems in a new home can be thanks to old plumbing that’s been overlooked in a successful building inspection, including to research from Gemark.
Gemark co-founder Chris Manariti said based on the cases he’d seen, these flaws weren’t thanks to just one pipe: but a series of problems that could arise up to decades after a home’s plumbing was installed.
“These were not homes with obvious defects at inspection,” he said. “Systems were operational, presented well, and had passed standard building and pest checks.”
“The consistency of accounts across states — stormwater discharging into soil, mixed old/new drainage, failures emerging weeks or months after settlement — suggests this isn’t a regional issue, but a systemic inspection blind spot,” he said.
Gemark co-founder Chris Manariti said the problem could be “a systemic inspection blind spot”, which can cause repair costs not known to buyers or sellers before a purchase.
Problems can include damaged stormwater systems harming the property’s soil and filtration, or a mix of old and new pipework masking long-term issues. These unchecked problems can cause large repair costs not known to either the property’s buyer or seller.
Gemark’s plumbing specialists found 94 per cent of their pre-purchase plumbing inspections discovered one or more issues in a home, with 30 per cent of flexible water hoses needing replacing.
If a water hose fails within a home, the average insurance claim can spike past $25,000.
Home insurance claims for issues such as a failing water hose can go above $25,000 – and that’s one of many problems that outdated plumbing can lead to.
“The resulting problems didn’t always take years to surface,” Mr Manariti said. “In many cases they emerged within six to 18 months of occupancy, once homes were lived in fully, weather conditions changed, or minor works disturbed subsurface systems.”
“It’s not about dodgy inspections or sellers hiding things. Most building inspections are visual and non-intrusive by design. They don’t test underground drainage capacity, long-term groundwater behaviour, or how old and new systems interact below ground. That’s where the blind spot is.”
Gemark’s research collated data from QBE Insurance Group, Suncorp Group and Insurance Council of Australia data, along with a series of private plumbing contractors and nationwide accounts within the industry.
It’s been reported that more than half of Australians have either had water damage in their own homes, or they know someone who has.
Currently, around 24 per cent of Aussie home insurance claims are related to internal water damage, with plumbing failures (burst or blocked pipes) accounting for 46 per cent of that number.
Meanwhile, about 58 per cent of Australians have said they have either experienced water damage in their own residence, or know someone who has.
Help us improve your reading experience
Got a minute? Your feedback will help us build a better experience for you.
Help us improve this page
English (US) · 