Argh - leak!

Snakey

The flat two floors above and one floor over (so thankfully not directly above me) had some sort of flooding issue on Saturday, with the result that in one corner of my living room there is a wet patch slowly working its way along the two edges of the ceiling and down the inside corner of the wall. I noticed it yesterday morning and it's a bit worse this morning. There's no actual water, but it is wet (if you see what I mean).

As far as I know the leak itself was stopped on the Saturday.

What happens now? Is it likely to get worse before it gets better? How long might it take to dry out?

The structure of the building is, as far as I know, concrete floors and brick walls (cavity walls to the outside). Where the damp is, one side is the outside wall and the other is next door's living room.

Do I need to get in touch with my buildings insurance people to do something (what?) about it? It has a £100 excess, so I don't want to make a fuss if all it actually needs is a chance to dry out followed by a fresh coat of paint. But I don't really have a clue what sort of damage water does - I've never had this happen before - might it be structural and need "real" repair work doing to it which I would regret not seeing to right away?

Any advice, reassurance, horror stories etc much appreciated!

wallbash

It only happened 48 hours ago, the leak has been fixed??
I would take a couple of pictures and ......wait.

What action could you take? As you say, until the possible bill is over £100 no point in phoning the insurance company.