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Trusted plumbers in London

From a dripping tap to a full bathroom re-pipe, plumbing problems get worse quietly. Describe the job — with a photo if you can — and we'll review your request and connect you with a suitable verified plumber where available.

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The London Heroes standard

  • Verified Heroes

  • Live Hero Passport

  • Secure payments

  • Local & accountable

What we can help with

  • Plumbing repairs and installations
  • Leak detection and damp investigation
  • Taps, toilets, showers and basins
  • Burst and leaking pipes
  • Low water pressure and slow drainage
  • Kitchen and bathroom plumbing
  • Landlord plumbing checks and pre-purchase surveys

Popular plumbing services

Also covered: Tap repair and replacement · Shower repair and installation · Burst pipe repair · Low water pressure investigation · Stopcock replacement · Waste pipe repairs · Pre-purchase plumbing surveys · Landlord plumbing checks— describe the job in your request and we’ll route it correctly.

Recognise the symptom?

The law on plumbing

Statutory basis

General plumbing work in the UK has no dedicated statutory register or licensing regime of the kind that exists for gas or (for notifiable work) electrical installations. The relevant statutory framework that does exist is the Water Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations 1999, which controls the design, installation and maintenance of plumbing systems connected to the public water supply, to prevent waste, misuse, undue consumption or contamination of water. Regulation 5 requires that 'any person who proposes to instal a water fitting in connection with any of the operations listed in the Table' must give notice to 'the water undertaker that he proposes to begin work' and 'shall not begin that work without the consent of that undertaker,' UNLESS the work is carried out by 'an approved contractor' for certain listed fittings, in which case the notification requirement does not apply. This exemption structure implies non-approved persons can still legally carry out most plumbing work, provided the water undertaker is notified where required — there is no blanket prohibition on an unregistered person doing plumbing work.

Source — checked

Who may legally do this work

Any plumber may legally carry out plumbing work; there is no equivalent to the Gas Safe Register for general plumbing. Where a plumber does gas work (e.g. connecting a boiler), that specific element of the job requires Gas Safe registration under the separate GSIUR regime. WaterSafe describes itself as 'a free online directory and national accreditation body for competent and qualified plumbers, water supply pipe installers and other water services specialists in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland' — approved contractors on this register benefit from the notification exemption in regulation 5, and 'can perform certain work without notifying water suppliers,' issuing 'Certificates of Compliance' instead. This is a voluntary accreditation route, not a legal requirement to trade as a plumber.

Source — checked

If you own and live in the property

  • A homeowner (or their plumber, on their behalf) proposing to install a water fitting covered by the Table in the Water Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations 1999 must give notice to their water undertaker before starting work, unless using an approved contractor for exempted fittings. Failure to do so, or installing non-compliant fittings, can be enforced by the water undertaker.

    Source — checked

  • Where plumbing work on a home also involves gas (e.g. connecting a new boiler or gas cooker), that part of the job is gas work under GSIUR regulation 3, whoever is described as the 'plumber' doing the wider job: whoever does it must be competent, and a plumbing business or self-employed plumber doing it must be on the Gas Safe Register.

    Source — checked

  • The regulation 5 notice goes to the water undertaker for the area, and in London that is not always Thames Water. CCW (the Consumer Council for Water) lists three water companies whose areas include London: Thames Water ('London and the Thames Valley'), Affinity Water ('North and West London and the surrounding Home Counties') and SES Water ('Surrey, Kent and South London'). A fourth, Essex & Suffolk Water, publishes an area of supply that includes 'the London Boroughs of Barking and Dagenham, and Havering and Redbridge'. Some sites are served instead by a NAV company, which CCW describes as 'approved by Ofwat to provide water and/or sewerage services to specific sites instead of the usual water company responsible for the area'. To find yours, CCW points to Water UK's postcode checker.

    Source — checked

If you’re a landlord

  • No plumbing-specific statutory duty distinct from a landlord's general repairing obligations (e.g. under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, and the general safety duties summarised on gov.uk's landlord safety responsibilities page) was found in the sources checked. Landlords' gas-connected plumbing work (boilers, gas pipework) falls under the gas safety regime; landlords' water-fitting installations are subject to the same Water Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations 1999 notification rules as homeowners.

    Source — checked

  • One of those general repairing obligations is section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. In England, it implies into a lease of a home granted for a term of less than seven years (section 13 of the same Act) a covenant by the landlord 'to keep in repair the structure and exterior of the dwelling-house (including drains, gutters and external pipes)' and 'to keep in repair and proper working order the installations in the dwelling-house for the supply of water, gas and electricity and for sanitation (including basins, sinks, baths and sanitary conveniences, but not other fixtures, fittings and appliances for making use of the supply of water, gas or electricity)'. In a flat, it can also reach an installation elsewhere in the building that serves the flat (section 11(1A)). The covenant does not require the landlord to carry out repairs the tenant is liable for under their duty to use the home in a tenant-like manner, or to keep in repair anything the tenant is entitled to remove (section 11(2)(a) and (c)), and a term in the tenancy putting these repairs on the tenant has no effect beyond those (section 11(4)).

    Source — checked

Certificates & records

  • Certificate of Compliance (Water Fittings Regulations)

    Who must hold it:
    Issued by a WaterSafe-approved contractor for exempted work under regulation 5
    Frequency:
    One-off, per job

    WaterSafe states approved contractors 'must comply with The Water Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations 1999 for every installation and issue a certificate stating that the work complies with the Regulations,' and are 'available to be audited periodically by the local water company.'

    Source — checked

Commonly misunderstood

  • Do plumbers have to be licensed or registered in the UK?

    There is no statutory licence for general plumbing in the UK. The only legal restriction that touches plumbing is the water-fittings notification regime (regulation 5) and, separately, the Gas Safe requirement for any gas-connected element of a job. WaterSafe and WIAPS accreditation are valuable quality signals precisely because they are voluntary rather than a floor set by law.

    What people often assume instead: Many homeowners assume plumbers must be licensed or registered by law, the way gas engineers and (for notifiable work) electricians are.

    Source — checked

Penalties for non-compliance

  • No specific fine figure for breach of the Water Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations 1999 was found in the sources checked today. The regulation-5 text itself confirms enforcement operates through the water undertaker's consent mechanism (work must not begin without consent, which 'shall not be withheld unreasonably') rather than a named criminal penalty in the provisions reviewed.

    Source — checked

How to check who’s legally allowed to do this

WaterSafe operates the national register of approved plumbers and water-fitting installers, allowing consumers to check a plumber's WaterSafe accreditation. WaterSafe also recommends checking that a plumber holds at least 'an NVQ Level 2 in Mechanical Engineering Services (Plumbing) or an equivalent plumbing-related qualification' and warns that 'over a quarter of people have been scammed by rogue plumbers.' A separate but related scheme, WIAPS (Water Industry Approved Plumbers Scheme), is administered by Water Regs UK on behalf of the water undertakers and is 'the largest of the four UK Approved Contractors' Schemes.'

watersafe.org.uk

Source — checked

Medium confidence

Some detail in this section could not be independently confirmed against a primary source at the time of checking — treat exact figures and edge cases as indicative, not guaranteed, and confirm anything material before relying on it.

Could not establish a specific statutory penalty figure for breach of the Water Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations 1999 from the provisions checked today; could not establish whether the four water companies that supply London (Thames Water, Affinity Water, SES Water and Essex & Suffolk Water) handle regulation 5 notifications differently from one another.

Checked against the sources cited above between and ; each claim shows the date it was checked. Rules and guidance change — always confirm anything material against the official source before acting on it.

How it works

  1. 1

    Tell us what you need

    Describe the job in plain English — add a photo if it helps. It takes about two minutes.

  2. 2

    We match a verified Hero

    We review your request and connect you with a suitable verified professional where available.

  3. 3

    You confirm, your Hero is paid

    You pay when you book, and your money is held. Follow the job on its live timeline; when you confirm the work is complete, it is released to your Hero, and you can leave a review tied to the real job.

Pricing, honestly

You approve a price before work starts — either a fixed price for well-defined jobs or a clear quote after assessment. Payment goes through the platform, so what was agreed and what was paid are always on the record.

Areas we cover

London Heroes covers all 33 London boroughs around the clock. Choose yours for the local picture, including what your council requires from landlords.

Plumbing questions, answered

How quickly can a plumber come?
Response times depend on availability, location and job type. Non-urgent jobs are typically scheduled at a time that suits you; urgent jobs are triaged first.
Do I pay before or after the work?
You approve the price before work starts. You pay through the platform when you book, and the money is held securely until you confirm the work is done — so there's a full record of what was agreed and paid.
What should I include in my request?
The fixture involved, what it's doing, when it started, and a photo. 'Leaking' plus a photo of the pipe joint tells a plumber more than three paragraphs — it means they arrive with the right parts.

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