Trace and Access CoverA guide from ADI Leak DetectionCall an engineer0333 567 2646
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Understand your trace and access cover

Read the clause, identify its conditions and separate the cost of finding a leak from repair and water damage. This guide helps you prepare specific policy questions for your insurer.

Review your policy wording

ADI Leak Detection publishes this guide. ADI investigates leaks; your insurer assesses cover.

An engineer testing a water supply pipe in a front garden
The scope of an investigation and the scope of insurance cover are separate questions.

What does trace and access cover mean?

Where included, this cover may contribute to locating a leak, reaching it and making good the opening. The exact wording decides which operations and circumstances qualify.

No general guide can confirm your individual cover.

  1. Trace

    Investigating where water is escaping. Check whether the clause requires resulting insured damage.

  2. Access

    Opening the necessary part of the building. Confirm the extent of work and who can authorise it.

  3. Make good

    Restoring what the search disturbed, where included. Check limits on materials and matching finishes.

  4. Understand each part of the scope

Read three documents together

  1. Your schedule: the insured property, period, selected cover, limits and excesses.
  2. The policy wording: the conditions that bring the clause into operation and the exclusions that qualify it.
  3. Endorsements: changes that apply to this policy and may alter the standard wording.

Record the document version and page number. Ask the insurer to explain any apparent conflict rather than selecting the most favourable sentence in isolation.

Trace and access policy-reading checklist

Work through four checks with the documents open. The result identifies missing information; it does not decide whether a claim will be paid.

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Get your policy schedule or wording in front of you, then answer these four.

  1. 1Have you identified the policy covering this building?

    Check the insured address, period and policyholder. In a block, ask the managing agent for the relevant documents.

  2. 2Have you located the full trace and access clause?

    Read the wording and any endorsements, not just the summary or a headline benefit.

  3. 3Have you identified the conditions that trigger cover?

    Look for requirements concerning the source of water, resulting damage and the part of the property affected.

  4. 4Have you found the limit, excess and approval conditions?

    Note the page references and ask the insurer how these apply to the proposed scope.

Keep four insurance decisions separate

  • The search and opening

    Check the trace and access trigger, scope and limit.

  • The failed component

    Pipe or fitting repair may have different cover or be excluded.

  • The resulting damage

    Water-damaged building materials and belongings may fall under different sections.

The fourth decision is your own contribution: ask how the applicable excess and any uninsured work are treated. Limits, excesses and separate costs.

Turn the wording into an approval request

Ask the insurer which clause applies to the proposed work, which evidence is still required and whether the contractor’s scope is authorised. Keep the written response with the relevant policy pages.

Use the trace and access approval questions or read the policy wording questions.

For context, this example of insurer policy wording connects trace and access to specified damage and a schedule limit. It is an illustration of why wording matters, not a statement of your current cover.

Need to define the investigation scope?

ADI can explain the proposed investigation and report. Ask your insurer to confirm cover and any approval requirements before commissioning non-emergency work. ADI cannot authorise an insurance claim.

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