Would I be right in thinking a leak 25 feet before my water meters is not my responsibility, as we have a water leak in the field heading towards the main road and need to know if it is up to me to call a plumber or call the water supplier.
Call the water supplier or the Marie.
Thought that, called veolia and eventually got this snippy prat who told me as it is in the field between the road and the farm it was my responsibility as it was on my land.
Sent an email stating where the leak is as it is in marshland emptying into the river so it is their water loss, I find it quite funny as according to the news on their website they are on a big environment push to fix leaks and wastage.
Different situation but we have a leak in the pipe before it reaches our meter in our cellar and the water company Saur are coming on weds to fix it.
Have you checked if the thingy on your meter is spinning fast or normally?
Meters are stationary, 1st thing I checked after bailing out the submerged meters in the manhole.
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A couple of yrs ago we received a letter from Sogedo to inform us we might have a water leak, they had noticed our consumption had increased more than normal. We had to call a plumber (at our expense) to check it out. We checked, the neighbours checked (they don’t get out much 
) One even insisted on going to the local office with me to back me! (anything to go out 
) After much scratching of heads and tutting I suddenly remembered we had family staying this previous year, six months of extra water usage soon adds up! I left with a red face, everybody else just 
Good luck
This looks to be quite a lot of water running out, I thought it was a spring at first but if you put your ear to the pipe you can here it running well.
As the leak is before the meter it wont effect the meter. They cant charge for what you are not using.
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A new meter was fitted 7 or 8 years ago. A year or two later it was modified with a radio top so it can be read remotely. About 2 years later I wanted to turn off the water while I sorted out a plumbing problem, but couldn’t shift the lever. The (red in this case) stop cock at the meter was jammed. I daren’t give it too much push, so called water company in. Guy came, freed it. He said they all jam. It is worth checking that you can close it, because if you urgently need to one day …
Old, old setup, it was a farm so one incoming then splits into 3 for the house, old dairy and stables, so 3 meters with old large stopcocks.
You always have to empty the water out of manhole so stopcocks turn easily, it’s always funny watching the meter reader disappearing round the back of the house with his wee bucket 
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Totally agree, should give the valve a twist every 6 months. With the supplied water pressure in France you’ll quickly have a massive problem if you need to shut the water off in an emergency.
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The run from my house to the meter is very long and uses the older low pressure (6 bar?) pipe so I’ve had two leaks in past ten years. Both involved getting specialists out who located the leaks and fixed the pipe.
The first intervention was quite dramatic and reminded me of Thunderbirds when I was a kid. A truck reversed into the drive, the back opened, a ramp came out and a digger stormed off down the garden as if it was chasing aliens.
Anyway, house insurance paid for locating the leaks and I had to stump up for repairing them. I’ve since taken out inexpensive insurance to pay for the whole thing next time.
The key point I’d like to make is that I wasn’t responsible for the significantly excess water usage. When the stonking great bill arrives there’s a standard letter you send back with the proof of repair and the bill is reduced to the level of your average usage over a similar period. Handy to know.
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Thats still quite considerable compared to the UK especially London where you may get 1 bar if you are lucky.
Yes handy to know there is a std letter, could you post a link? Sort of thing James may want to put in his useful file on SF
Good idea John. Here it s…
Veolia Leak Letter.docx (13.4 KB)
Obviouly neds to be addressed to your local Veolia regional office.
I’ve squirrelled away that example letter for future reference - thank you @John_Scully !
I’m interested that James has a useful file on SF, @Corona - is that generally available? I can’t see anything like that…
Its somwhere on a drop down tab at the top or was, I just remember it being there at some point.
@james
I can’t see any drop-down tabs at the top, @Corona - is there another linked site? All I have is the various categories of forum discussions plus privacy notices and things like that.