Do these first, in this order
Turn the water off at the toby
The toby is the shut-off valve for the whole property. Look near your front boundary for a small box in the ground, which may also hold the water meter. Close the valve and the water stops everywhere in the house.
Keep clear of water near power
If water is reaching power points, light fittings or the switchboard, stay out of it. Only switch the power off if you can reach the switchboard from somewhere dry.
Leaking cylinder? Switch it off
If the water is coming from the hot water cylinder or its pipes, turn the cylinder off at the switchboard as well as closing the toby. Our page on leaking cylinders covers what comes next.
Smell gas? Leave the house
Don't flick switches, light anything or start appliances near the smell. Get people and pets outside. Close the gas at the meter or bottle only if you can reach it without going back into the smell, then read our gas leaks page from outside.
Anyone in danger comes first
A fire, an injury or someone feeling unwell near a gas appliance needs emergency help before any plumbing does. Ring 111 for the emergency services.
Then tell us the job
Use the urgent form. Say what is happening, what you have already turned off, and whether water is still running anywhere.
Jobs that usually can't wait
- A split pipe, or water you can't stop at a tap or valve.
- Water coming through a ceiling or wall, or anywhere near the switchboard.
- Sewage coming back up through a toilet, shower or the gully trap (the grated drain outside where your waste pipes meet).
- A hot water cylinder leaking from the cylinder itself.
- Any smell of gas inside the house.
- The only toilet in the house is blocked.
What can wait for a normal booking
A dripping tap, a toilet that keeps refilling, a slow sink or a knocking pipe can wait for a weekday visit. Close the small valve on a running toilet's supply pipe, if it has one.
No water at all? It may be a network fault or planned work, which no plumber can fix, so check with your water provider first. Tiaki Wai, which now runs water for Wellington, Lower Hutt, Upper Hutt and Porirua, takes reports of leaks, low pressure, overflows and damaged pipes directly.
Is it your pipe or the water provider's?
Where your responsibility starts depends on who supplies your water, and the rule changes from place to place.
In Auckland, Watercare says a leak between your home and the meter needs a plumber, while a leak in the meter or on the street side is for Watercare. In Christchurch, the city council looks after pipes and fittings up to your boundary, and a leak on your property is yours to get fixed. In Tauranga, the council covers the pipes up to and including the meter, and the owner has everything on the property side, even where the meter sits outside the boundary.
Not sure where your provider's pipe ends? Ask it before anyone starts digging. Our guide on who fixes a blocked drain sets out the rules provider by provider.
What a plumber will do on an urgent call
Expect them to trace the water, stop it and leave the area safe. Some faults get a holding repair on the night and a permanent one later, so ask at the start which one you are paying for.
Sewage coming up may need a drainlayer rather than a plumber. Drains are the underground pipes carrying wastewater or stormwater to a council sewer or septic tank, and drainlaying is a separate licence.
What changes the job
Where the fault sits matters most. A pipe you can see is quicker than one inside a wall, under the floor or under a slab. Then it's the hour, how much has to be opened up, the parts, and whether the fault is on your side of the point of supply at all.
Ask how after-hours work is charged before anyone starts. A quote is a set price; an estimate is a best guess. Once you accept a quote, Consumer Protection says the price can only rise if you agree to extra work or the scope changes.
Licences and consent still count
Urgency doesn't change who may do the work. Most plumbing and drainlaying is restricted work, and all gasfitting is, so the person at your door needs a current PGDB licence for that trade. They can show it on a card or in the PGDB app, and our guide to checking a PGDB licence shows how to confirm it.
The Building Act lets urgent work start without a consent when one can't practicably be got in advance, to protect life or health or prevent serious damage. If that work would normally have needed consent, the owner applies to the council for a certificate of acceptance afterwards. Many emergency repairs never needed consent anyway: repairing plumbing with comparable products is exempt when an authorised person does it.
Keep photos and the invoice. PGDB warns that your insurance may be void if an unlicensed person works on your property and it goes wrong.
While you wait
You can
- Close the toby, and switch an electric cylinder off at the switchboard if it is leaking.
- Stop using toilets, sinks and showers if sewage is backing up.
- Move belongings out of the water and photograph the damage before cleaning up.
- Repair or replace a tap, ball cock or plug: these are on PGDB's list of jobs a homeowner can do.
Leave to an authorised tradie
- Cutting out, joining or replacing any pipe, including water supply pipes.
- Traps, waste pipes and soil pipes.
- Any gas pipe, fitting or appliance, which needs an authorised gasfitter.
- Repairs to an underground drain, which need a drainlayer.
Warning signs on an urgent call-out
- Nobody can show a current practising licence, on a card or in the app.
- The licence is for a different trade. Plumbing, gasfitting and drainlaying are licensed separately.
- A large deposit before any work starts. There is no legal requirement to pay one, and Consumer Protection suggests paying no more than 10% if asked.
- Pressure to agree on the doorstep, or a job described as far more urgent than it looks.
- No written price before the work, or no itemised invoice after it.
What we would do
Get the water off at the toby, or get yourself away from a gas smell, and then slow down. With the supply closed, very few jobs get worse in the time it takes to reach someone who does this work every week. Check the licence when they arrive, ask how the call-out is charged, and say no to a big deposit at the door. When you're ready, tell us the job and an authorised tradie who handles urgent call-outs can take it from there.