Leak detectors plug a gap in the market

Auto Leak Alert, the company founded by Liberton man Peter Goddard, places a series of small detectors around a property that, once water makes contact with them, shut off the supply instantly.

It costs 180 to install in a property, but the firm says after it was introduced in a block of modern flats in Morningside, 20 floods were prevented in the space of a year and the insurance premium dropped by more than a quarter. The success of the system is now attracting attention from across the country.

Mr Goddard, who also owns the flat-factoring firm Myrseside Management - which covers the building insurance on the Craighouse flats that trialled the system - said: "If you ask any buildings insurance firm, their biggest problem is flooding.

"We've been paying more and more each year, to the point where they said we had to do something to stop claims about flooding, so we developed this system."

Sensors are located in rooms most likely to experience flooding or a leak, such as in the kitchen behind a washing machine and in the bathroom.

These are fitted to an alarm, which goes off when a leak is found, while the system also shuts off the water until reset.

"I couldn't believe there wasn't already something like this," said Mr Goddard. "You could get alarms you could place behind a washing machine, but what use is that unless you are in?"

He admitted that some residents were sceptical about the system when it was first mooted last year, but since all 114 flats were fitted, not a single flooding-related claim has been made.

"That was crucial for us, we knew it worked but we needed the evidence," he said.

"Then earlier this year we reached the point where we had a clear year of no claims, and that meant the block insurance went down from 12,500 to 8700.

"The insurance firm has even said to us it won't insure other flats we manage in Colinton unless this is put in.

"We've had calls from all over about it, and recently went to Glasgow to demonstrate it.

"It has stopped flooding on 20 occasions in Craighouse Gardens, including one time when a man was in the shower, his water stopped and the alarm went off, and a leak was found down behind the bath."

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