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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To ask for emergency advice, ceiling caved in!

27 replies

Anyname25 · 06/01/2026 20:06

Sorry, feeling desperate and scared!
Long story short, i'm in an HA property, reported a ceiling leak days ago. They fobbed me off and now the entire ceiling (kitchen) has collapsed 😭

I'm waiting for emergency plumber, electrician and carpenter but just chased it up and I dont know when they will come. Could be hours yet (been waiting 3hrs already) and I'm panicking/spiralling.

I am worried about fire. The ceiling brought down the smoke alarm connected to the mains. So live wires up there. I was going to turn it off at the fuse box but its on the same fuse as my doorbell! And I need that to know when they come. What do I do?

Is the room above safe to use? All my DS expensive computer equipment is up there. Can/should we move it?

Looks like it brought down a couple of pipes with it, probably heating pipes. I turned the boiler off. Is that enough?

Any advice appreciated as I'm feeling really scared. Thanks.

OP posts:
sickleaveornot · 06/01/2026 20:10

Do you live in a flat? Is there any reason why you wouldn't hear the door if they knocked?

Id definitely be turning the switches of at the fuse and not leaving them.

bigfishlittlefishtupperwarebox · 06/01/2026 20:12

I agree, fuses off and a note on the door with your phone number if you have no other way of them getting in

tipsyraven · 06/01/2026 20:13

Put a note on your doorbell with your phone number asking them to call you if you want to switch off the fuse. I wouldn’t use the room above the collapsed ceiling until it has been assessed. Usually there is a time scale for emergency workers to arrive, within 4 hours with some HAs, though with this weather they may have more call outs than usual.

IreneFromSkibbereen · 06/01/2026 20:16

I think I would maybe ring the fire brigade not only for your own safety but you don’t know how the rest of the building might be affected if there’s live wires and heating pipes involved.

Anyname25 · 06/01/2026 20:16

Yes i'm in a flat and wouldnt hear the door. And I know them, if they got no answer they'd just leave.

OP posts:
Anyname25 · 06/01/2026 20:18

Correction, not a flat in the sense you might think, a victorian conversion and I'm on the upper floors.

OP posts:
Ponderingwindow · 06/01/2026 20:23

Note on door. Turn everything off. Water. Electricity. Everything.

Maybe grab medication and essentials just in case your access is cut off but otherwise stay away.

I can’t really advise on the wait. When this happened to us it was a burst pipe. We called our insurance company. They had a recovery service at our house in less than an hour to start mitigating the damage.

fyi, we had to move out temporarily. They filled our home with fans and heaters. The decibel level is impressive.

Anyname25 · 06/01/2026 20:27

Ok switched off the fuse and put a note on the door.

I'm so angry with them. I've been chasing them up for 10 days saying the leak was getting worse and all they kept saying to me was that if I could catch the water in a bucket it wasn't an emergency! Finally had a plumber booked in for today and he called in sick so didnt show.

OP posts:
WarmGreyHare · 06/01/2026 20:38

Anyname25 · 06/01/2026 20:27

Ok switched off the fuse and put a note on the door.

I'm so angry with them. I've been chasing them up for 10 days saying the leak was getting worse and all they kept saying to me was that if I could catch the water in a bucket it wasn't an emergency! Finally had a plumber booked in for today and he called in sick so didnt show.

I'm not sure if this is fire brigade worthy or not, given the exposed electrics and water combo I am inclined to say yes? So If someone doesn't turn up shortly if at least try and call for advice. Can you find the number for the local station rather than 999? I'm not really sure what the correct procedure would be here, sorry!

sickleaveornot · 06/01/2026 20:48

@Anyname25what county are you in? Some counties have a non emergency fire line for advice

Anyname25 · 06/01/2026 20:51

I'm in north london.

OP posts:
Anyname25 · 06/01/2026 20:51

I'm in north london.

OP posts:
ThejoyofNC · 06/01/2026 20:52

You need to turn everything off. I can't believe you left it on for a doorbell. Sit by the door if needed. So dangerous.

WarmGreyHare · 06/01/2026 20:52

sickleaveornot · 06/01/2026 20:48

@Anyname25what county are you in? Some counties have a non emergency fire line for advice

I'm assuming uk given she mentioned housing association? And I just googled as had the same question. We have a non emergency number for police and healthcare, but not for fire brigade apparently. But I did just look out of interest and it took me about 30 seconds to find the number for my local station, and I presume they would have someone there at all hours, depending on how busy an area it is I suppose.

Anyname25 · 06/01/2026 21:06

ThejoyofNC · 06/01/2026 20:52

You need to turn everything off. I can't believe you left it on for a doorbell. Sit by the door if needed. So dangerous.

Please, I have no idea of these kinds of things, hence posting for advice. I'm panicked and not thinking straight. And bear in mind they won't hesitate to leave if they cant get an answer.

So the electrician has been, hes disconnected that fuse you all said to turn off (which i did) so that was good advice, thank you. He said its safe as far as the electrics goes now. Apparently that smoke alarm wasn't hooked up to the mains anyway, but hopefully OK on that front now.

OP posts:
morethanspice · 06/01/2026 21:25

A friend of mine had something similar and had to emergency evacuate and the flat burnt down, glad you getting good advice here on what to do.

Anyname25 · 06/01/2026 23:03

Still no sign of the plumber or carpenter. There was no fire station number. Only in office hours and they said to call 999 in an emergency. Which tbh in the end I did, apologising profusely for calling. They said just dont use the electrics in that room and it should be ok and to obviously call them if I could smell any burning etc.

OP posts:
JenniferBooth · 11/01/2026 18:27

How are things now OP During Covid we had the roofs on our flats replaced, Also HA and my neighbour had a leak through his lights on a Saturday night when the tarpaulin was blown off and it was pissing with rain. HA refused to come out so he called the fire brigade. When ive posted about it on here before i was helpfully told that he just should have turned the electric off and sat there with no electric till Monday morning. FB fixed the tarpaulin but asked who the HA and the contractors were so i told them. Neighbour has learning difficulties

Anyname25 · 11/01/2026 21:17

Well leak still isn't fixed! No one came from the emergency team so the next day, Wednesday, I rang them and said if they didn't come out we were booking into a hotel and billing them. Funnily enough, that got things moving! To a degree.

Someone did come and clean up the debris. Over wednesday/Thursday the plumber found the source of the leak, a hot water pipe, but its the heating contractors that need to fix it and they're messing me around. The leak does now drop straight down through the no longer existing ceiling (the plumber took down an extra bit).

So since Friday I have been turning on the water/heat through the day, catching the water in a bucket, and at night I turn them off, drain off the hot water remaining in the kitchen tap, which stops it leaking overnight.

Obviously I'm not happy about leaving the leak running. But its bloody freezing, we need to be able to flush the loo etc. So that's what I've had to do.

The electrics got turned back on. The kitchen lights weren't affected by the leak (quite a big kitchen and my lights aren't in the middle, hard to explain but they are fully dry and undamaged). Theoretically we got told not to use them to "be on the safe side" (as in HA want to cover their asses now!) The practicality is we need to use them at least a little, but we're minimising it as far as possible. The HA were supposed to provide bright plug in lights, they haven't. The heating contractors were supposed to supply fan heaters, they havent.

This has all made my IBS flare up so I need a working loo! So that's the position they've left us in. Tomorrow I'll be chasing the heating contractors up and again threatening to go to a hotel. Because the only way to have no leak is to turn the water off and while they are allowed to leave me without heat, they're not allowed to leave me without a working loo.

The annoying thing is, the plumber said its not a tricky fix. He uncovered it all for them. Literally all they need to do is replace a bit of easily accessible pipe. But they're fobbing me off saying parts need to be ordered etc, which i do not believe. My ex was a heating engineer and he always had that sort of stuff in his van (shame we ended on bad terms!).

I'm speaking to a housing disrepair solicitor tomorrow because ultimately it should never have come to this and we were bloody lucky no one was hurt. The big chunks of ceiling that came down were full of water and very heavy. If anyone had been in the kitchen at the time they would have been seriously injured or even killed. So while it's been tough I am thankful we are at least all ok, other than being very stressed!

OP posts:
25mini7 · 11/01/2026 21:24

Did they make sure the ceiling doesn't contain asbestos?

JenniferBooth · 11/01/2026 21:32

Jesus @Anyname25 thats ridiculous. The incompetence is off the scale and as someone else said on another thread about a similar issue i also bet the part or parts could be got from Screwfix.

Anyname25 · 11/01/2026 21:43

25mini7 · 11/01/2026 21:24

Did they make sure the ceiling doesn't contain asbestos?

No. Would it be obvious? I don't know. Someone just came and cleared it away. That was about it in that regard.

I think they expect to just come in after the leak is fixed and patch it up. But one of the joists is soaked through so I'm going to insist they check it properly and dry it out first if necessary. Otherwise we'll end up with mould and/or structural issues.

OP posts:
Anyname25 · 11/01/2026 21:49

To be fair the repair people themselves are generally really nice and do what they can, but they have managers telling them to cut corners etc. The guy who cleaned up the ceiling, I heard him on the phone to his boss who was trying to say it would take a day to fix and the guy here was saying no, you need to book it as a 2 day job at least.

The plumber was really nice. When he couldnt find the leak on Wednesday he booked himself to come back first thing Thursday. And he didnt leave until he found the problem. Which once it became apparent it was a heating related one, he could have just left and passed me off to the heating contractors but I think he did feel really sorry for me!

OP posts:
Gabitule · 11/01/2026 21:55

I’m so cross on your behalf, they expect you to turn the water and heating off in the middle of winter? If they don’t have subcontractors available they should book an external workman to change the leaking pipe - I’ve had a similar issue and I called a gas engineer the next day, it took them a couple of hours to fix the leaking pipe. When it’s all sorted raise a complaint and ask for compensation for the inconvenience and stress they’re putting you through.

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