To not have any idea what to do about a collapsed ceiling?

[Argwhatdoido]

Posting here for traffic as need urgent advice please!

We rent, have a nine month baby, and my partner is out at work. I’m just getting the baby to sleep and heard a huge crash, and the ceiling below the bathroom has collapsed into the hall below.

Is it safe to stay here tonight? Should i be booking into a hotel? Do I need to turn the water off? (No water is gushing out or anything) Not use the bathroom?

Obviously will text the landlords right away, they are tightfisted arseholes and we’re not rich but if we need to book into a hotel then will somehow do it, obviously keeping the baby safe is the most important thing. He’s just falling asleep in the bedroom, we have to walk under the collapsed ceiling to enter or leave the upstairs. Partner not home for a couple of hours and we don’tdrive but hotel is in walking distance.

Does it look damp? Can you see any thing that may have caused the ceiling to collapse? I would call the landlord, not text and find somewhere to stay, hotel if that is the easier and closest.

I am literally just feeding the baby to sleep and can’t safely go and look till he’s down unless I need to actually get us both out of the house this minute… should I be putting him in the pram and grabbing what we need instead?

I dont think you need to find a hotel. The landlord will have to get a plumber round tomorrow. Sounds like leaking bathroom fittings, weight of water has pushed ceiling down. Leaks will need to be fixed, ceiling dried up and new plasterboards put up :-)

Gutted for you Op. dreadful situation.
I’d say you’re probably ok tonight if staying in bedrooms, but a ceiling collapse is fairly serious so I think you should be making plans to be away from your home over the coming days.

You really don’t need to find a hotel unless there’s water coming through the electrics, and even then if you can isolate both the water and the circuit the electrics are on then you’d probably be ok. Longer term, the insurers won’t consider the property to be uninhabitable as the damage is in the hallway so you’ll be expected to get on with it while waiting for a fix.

Get the baby down, then go and take pictures, and clear as much as you can. It sounds like there was a slow leak of some sort and that’s compromised the ceiling. Get on to your landlord, they’ll probably need to make an insurance claim.

How old is the house, and how much of the ceiling has come down? Is there water leaking in the bathroom or did you just assume that?

It's not unknown for plaster ceilings in Victorian houses to suddenly lose their key to the underlying lath and horsehair, and just fall down. It's happened to me! And it's not dangerous afterwards, although it is at the time because the plaster is very thick and heavy. The actress Samantha Morton was once injured in this way.

Thank you everyone for advice, a handy neighbour is now helping us work out what to do

Is there water seeping through from the bathroom? If so are the electrics at risk of shorting out? Is there a leak you can put a bucket under or turn off water inlet there. If you can turn off the power affected (lights downstairs) if needs be and there is no water dripping you are likely ok staying put.

I hope you are safe and a little more sure of what to do now. Just an advisory that if the ceilings were put up before 2000 and particularly if they were textured, there is a risk they may have asbestos containing material and the damaged one must be made safe / removed asap. There is no risk unless the ceiling is breached which of course is the case here. Any insurer will take this very seriously so please ensure your landlord does if this applies to your ceiling.

I hope all gets sorted for you as quickly as possible.

@boodlebeep thank you I wouldn’t have thought of that and we’re now desperately trying to persuade the landlord not to leave it all up to the cowboy handyman who can barely put up a shelf… asbestos definitely worth mentioning to them in that context! Now slightly obsessing over the fact I was rummaging around in it to find the stopcock and then didn’t wash before looking after the baby again.