Water leak and electrics

bouicca21

Last night I discovered water coming through the ceiling from a leak in the flat above.  It dripped through the light fitting and now the lighting circuit doesn’t work, but the circuit breaker has not tripped.  I suspect that there isn’t a leak as such but that someone left a tap running, but can’t be sure.

Do I need to call an electrician?  Or will it just dry out?  There is buildings insurance in place and damage caused by water leakage is covered, but there is a high excess.   If the management company make a claim, who pays the excess - me or the tenant of the flat above, or his landlord?  If the size of the excess means no claim in made, then who pays to fix my lighting circuit?  Is it even possible to get this sort of thing fixed during lockdown?

I can’t really talk to the people upstairs about this as they are singularly uncommunicative, plus even if they were communicative there is a language barrier.  It is difficult to tell how much English they understand as they have very thick accents that mean it is difficult to understand their replies, and because their replies are short and monosyllabic there is no chance to tune into the accent.  It probably doesn’t help that they are on bad terms with some of the other residents who have complained about their noise.