callapsed ceiling

Mistral001

Your insurance comapany will not be responsible for damage caused by the neighbour upstairs, so you have to get the money from the people upstairs or their contractors. It is very unlikely that the neighbour will be insured for this as their own household insurance would not cover them. They and/or the contractor would have needed to have taken out special third party insurance to cover damage to neighbouring property while the work was being carried out. It is possible for them to have done this, but very unlikely in my view, as that type of insurance is usually only bought when walls are being knocked down and major construction works like that.

It looks like what is called a "ceiling rose"and a ceiling light plus a sofa has been damaged so it is not the whole ceiling. Best advice is to try to get the neighbour upstairs to pay for it out of their own money. The work might not cost too much and the neighbour would probably be only to willing to contribute to it if they saw that the damage was caused by the work to their floor. You might not be able to get the full cost of the repairs from the neighbour as they have no guarantee that the plaster rose was not ready to fall down before they started the work.

PS. The difficulty here is that the OP has no record of the condition of the plaster ceiling rose before the work started upstairs. A surveyor brought in now will not be able to establish the condition of the rose before either. The OP could try to find photos of the room showing the ceiling rose and light before ther collapsed. Are there any photos of the room pre-collapse? Also if the flat was bought recently, do you have a surveyor's report? Also are their in old estate agent's brochure photos of the room?

Leif

What was the work done upstairs? If the people above had a new ceiling put in, which is what I think you suggested, I wouldn't have thought that would cause your ceiling to fall. How do you know the tenants did not pull on the ceiling light?

teneighty

Old lathe and plaster ceilings are notoriously unstable and can fail at any time.

Unless the upstairs neighbour was working directly on the floor and was being excessively heavy handed it is not their liability or an insurance issue.

It is just an old ceiling that has reached the end of its life.

olias

Hmmmmm, joined 5 years ago and nothing since, until now, suddenly 3 posts in pidjin english about laughin plaster?:rotfl::rotfl:

I suspect a troll.....

Olias

KATHLEEN

muckybutt wrote: »

A bit clearer now if the collapse was due to the tennant upstairs having work done then I would say they are liable, but if the ceiling in your flat was also unstable as that it would / could / did fall down then i'd say 50/50.

Get an independant surveyor in to look at the ceiling in your flat and do a report to submit to his and your insurer.

if there saying it fell down on its own accord and damaged other items would i be able to claim accidental damage from my building insurence as it was an internal building fixture thanks;)

TonyMMM

You may be able to claim for the damage to items in the room, but not for the repair to the ceiling itself.

valk_scot

Old plaster ceilings do come loose on the lathe, yes, especially when there's extra heavy sections like roses and bosses in the middle. After the hold starts to fail it may look okay but tap it and you'll soon find the hollow sounding parts where the lathe has detached.
Our lathe and plaster ceiling finally worked loose because of building work being done across the road. There were new flats being built and a lot of heavy lorries rumbling up and down just outside my ground floor flat. After standing and watching a crack actively get longer in front of my eyes one day I went and borrowed their contract plasterer for an expert opinion. He backed out in a hurry, told me to keep myself and the kids out of the room and he'd be back the next day to take the bulge in the ceiling down safely. It wasn't actually a big job, a morning to take down the loose patch of about ten feet x ten feet and another two mornings to patch and skim it. I don't remember it being that expensive either. I suppose I could have tried to blame it on them re the insurance but I don't think it would have come down if it wasn't loose already.

macman

KATHLEEN wrote: »

if there saying it fell down on its own accord and damaged other items would i be able to claim accidental damage from my building insurence as it was an internal building fixture thanks;)

No, because you didn't 'accidentally damage it'. It fell down due to it reaching the end of it's natural life.
Eventually your house roof will wear out-but you won't be able to claim it on your insurance.
It's an insurance contract, not a maintenance contract.

teneighty

I don't see why you couldn't claim for the suite on your contents insurance (not buildings).

A ceiling collapse can be sudden and unexpected with no previous warning signs so I do not see what you could have done to prevent it.

In large public buildings with ornate fibrous plaster ceilings like old theatres they have to carry out annual inspections to identify any potential problems as a collapse onto a full auditorium could be messy. But it would be unreasonable to expect householders to employ specialists to inspect their ceilings every year so I think it is an insurable risk.

Obviously if the rest of the ceiling is already riddled with cracks the insurance company could argue that you should have had the ceiling replaced before and the damage is due to lack of maintenance.

KATHLEEN

macman wrote: »

No, because you didn't 'accidentally damage it'. It fell down due to it reaching the end of it's natural life.
Eventually your house roof will wear out-but you won't be able to claim it on your insurance.
It's an insurance contract, not a maintenance contract.

ther was no cracks or warning or i would have delt with it
thanks