UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hello everyone

This is my first time posting on a forum but I don't know where else to go or what to do.

I recently bought my flat (first time buyer), it's very little my knowledge on the British law when it comes to housing. I live in a block of flats and last night around 10pm I started to notice that from the flat upstairs I got some leaking on the kitchen, corridor and living room.
As I immediately contacted the landlord from the flat upstairs, she told me that their tenants had a blockage on their shower and that was the water I was getting from the ceiling (it was looking like a monsoon). She told me that she will send someone around on the following day to fix that blockage. In the meantime for the following 24h the water coming inside my flat damage completely my belongings, as if I was sorting out the living room, the kitchen was overflowing, and viceversa. Now it seems their blockage is fixed but I need now to start to call a plumber, an electrician (the water also spill onto the main fuse box), it seems as far as I read that also insurance will be needed to cover some stuff. But in the meantime, I'm completely lost as I have some items that weren't insured as some kitchen appliance, I had to throw all the groceries because all the water coming from that flat was very smelly. My communication with those tenants is restricted as there's a police report for racism from their part to my family, also I'm having radiotherapy at the moment so this situation is not the best and my budget is also not the best to pay legal advice.

Any advice will be more than grateful.

Many thanks

The first thing you need to do is contact your insurers and get confirmation about what they will pay for.You will almost certainly have to pay an excess fee.If you are left with expenses that are not covered, your only option is to write to the landlord of upstairs and request they pay you.They will almost certainly refuse,so you could either make a claim in the small claims court for a fair fee,or ask a solicitor to act for you.Realistically you may have to write this off,it may not be worth the hassle under the circumstances you mention. The fact that the landlord did not send an emergency plumber out right away makes me think they will not be very co-operative.