Posting for traffic. We moved into our new house 2 weeks ago. This weekend we heard an almighty crash and rushed upstairs to see a section of the ceiling had fallen down! Bit of a shock! It was directly under the shower on the floor above so we called a plumber who came round super quick and investigated.
It turns out the shower unit has not been fitted correctly (not flush with the wall and not sealed very thoroughly) so water had been leaking through for the last 2 weeks when we had showers. The plumber has advised we let things dry out and then he will return and whack a load of sealant in as a temporary measure but in the long term we need to re-tile and refit the shower tray correctly. He looked at our other bathroom and advised we need to tile the wall next to the bath, which has a shower over it – currently it's just a painted wall –and redo the sealant which, again, has not been sealed well at all.
We are going to deal with the main issue first and get the shower room redone, retile etc. We will then need to plaster the room below and redecorate the ceiling. After this we need to deal with the other bathroom.
I chatted to my dad over the weekend and he said we should find out from our solicitor who fitted the shower room and look into getting them to sort it out and, if need be, sueing them. I know he's trying to help but I feel it's our house now, we cannot contact the solicitor every time something happens! In my mind we just need to sort it all out and claim it back on our house insurance (which we had in place from day 1 of living here) if the cost is over our excess and something which we can't afford.
My dad has texted again, advising to contact out house insurance company if they have a legal helpline and to get the plumber to take photos and write a report on what's happened. Again, he is trying to help which is lovely but this all sounds a bit much to me – I know it's all a bit of a pain but surely it's not such a major issue to warrant all this?!