Nothing about the repair changes in those fifty days. The pipe is the same pipe and the plumber charges the same money. What changes is the water — and here, where meters are read every two to three months, that is the part you pay for.
One split pipe on an empty villa, from the first drop to the bill landing.
Day 1
A joint starts to weep. Roughly 40 litres a day. Cost so far: about €0.10. A plumber would charge for the visit, not the damage.
Day 10
The split has opened. Several hundred litres a day now. Still nothing visible above ground, still nothing on any bill.
Day 50
The meter has not been read yet. The loss is into the thousands of litres. The repair is the same repair — the water is the expensive part.
The bill
Two or three months after it started, the figure arrives. A documented, plumber-repaired leak typically gets around 20% off at best. The rest is yours.
Typical costs are for one billing period on a villa with a garden and a pool. They are indicative, not quotes.
A worn flush seal passes water into the pan continuously. It is close to silent and leaves no puddle, so nothing looks wrong.
A cracked drip line or a timer stuck open waters the same patch day after day. In a garden that already looks green, there is nothing to notice.
A leaking pool shell or a backwash valve left partly open keeps the auto-fill running. The pool level always looks right, which is exactly the problem.
A split in the pipe between the meter and the house loses water into the ground. On free-draining Costa Blanca soil there may be no wet patch at all.
A pool cleaner's hose or a garden tap not fully closed. Short, avoidable, and the most common thing an hourly reading catches within a day.
A softener stuck in its rinse cycle sends mains water straight to drain around the clock, usually into a pipe nobody looks at.
You do not need us to do any of this. Work through it in order — most people find the answer at step one or two.
Close every tap, stop the irrigation and the pool pump, and note the meter reading. Come back in an hour without using water. If the numbers moved, water is going somewhere.
Put a few drops of food colouring in the cistern and wait twenty minutes without flushing. Colour in the pan means the seal is passing. It is the cheapest fix on this list.
Close the valve feeding the irrigation and the outside taps, then repeat the meter test. If the movement stops, the leak is outside the house.
With the house quiet and nothing running, a hiss at the stopcock or a warm patch on a floor points at a pressurised pipe losing water.
Meter readings, the exposed pipe, the plumber's invoice. A refund claim without documentation is usually refused.
Once it is repaired, submit the invoice and the photos. Around 20% off the excess is a realistic best case, not a guarantee.
If the meter is moving with everything closed, call a plumber before you call us. A monitor tells you a leak is running; it does not fix the pipe.
MiAgua reads the flow on your side of the supply every hour. When usage crosses the thresholds you set, whoever you nominate is told — you, a keyholder, or the property manager. Nothing before the water company's meter is touched, and your supply and billing are unaffected.
The point is not the sensor. It is that day fifty never happens.
Installation and monitoring are charged separately.
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