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Many Western Australian homes fitted with Pro-fit Typlex 1050 resin polybutylene plumbing pipes (Typlex pipes), manufactured by Iplex Australia, have experienced water leaks.
Following an extensive mediation process, several builders and Iplex Australia have agreed to participate in an Industry Response to address the leaks in a planned and controlled manner at no cost to homeowners.
While the details of the agreement are still being finalised, participating builders will shortly be able to sign up to the Industry Response to access funding to perform remedial works on leaking Typlex pipes in affected homes.
Remedial works will be undertaken on a tiered basis proportionate to the number of leaks. The remedial works will be carried out irrespective of when the house was completed or when the Typlex pipe leaks started to occur.
More information about this in-principle agreement is available in the Commerce Minister’s media statement.
Further details will be published on this page in the near future.
Homeowners whose properties were fitted with Typlex pipes should continue to contact their builder in the first instance.
If the builder is not currently participating in the agreement, affected homeowners can lodge a building services complaint with Building and Energy.
At this time, the usual period for lodging these complaints is six years from the home’s practical completion, but legislation will be introduced to expand this to 15 years for complaints related to Typlex pipes.
Please note - An online register for consumers was initially set up to assist Building and Energy gather some initial information on the scope of the issue.
The register is now closed.
At this stage, the leaks appear to mostly affect residential homes built by certain builders in WA in 2019 or 2020, containing Typlex pipes manufactured by Iplex Australia between mid-2017 to mid-2022.
In the first instance, if you have concerns about your plumbing pipes, contact your builder. If you are renting the property, please contact your landlord or property manager.
The experience is different for each home, but leaks from burst plumbing pipes can be detected visually (with water staining appearing on walls, ceilings and floors) or from the sound of water leaking. In some cases you may notice an unexplained increase in your water use on your bill.
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