How worried would you be about this?

[Hhousee]

It goes dark when it rains heavily but then seems to dry and shrink. It’s got a small circle of black mould in the middle. Has been this big for a while so isn’t getting bigger at the moment. I’m broke and very worried, homeowner. It’s in my bedroom.

Just to add hoping to sell next year, house in good nick generally but wanted to avoid substantial work before moving.

It could just be a bit of flashing or a cracked tile. Try not to worry until you know more, but it will need fixing.

It could just be one tile a cracked tile

Thanks I’ve got someone coming over on Wednesday it was earliest they could do. Also contacted a couple of others but not heard back yet. Would someone who does guttering be able to find the issue?

You could contact your house insurance and see if it comes under buildings part

We had similar and it was a problem with the flashing around the chimney, can't remember if it was cracked or actually missing.... Got it fixed by a roofer, the ceiling dried out and we repaintand it's been fine since.
Can you send the person the photos and ones showing the outside to see if they are the right trade to look at the problem before they come round?

There is no point in worrying or panicking - it's not going to help to sort the issue. You need to stop speculating what it is and call a professional to make an assessment.
I currently have a wall in my living room which has moisture reading higher than the rest of the house and some salt deposits. The worst thing I can do is look at it and panic. I have a list of damp surveyors to ring up on Monday morning so I can figure out what is going on and deal with it appropriately. Also a single female with absolutely no clue what I am looking at. That's why I need a professional.

I apologise if this isn’t helpful as I don’t know who exactly I would call but in my experience, damp specialists, tend to find damp. Regardless.

Maybe a nice local builder?

If the guttering is broken or stuffed full and blocked then yes they'd be able to diagnose. You could try this and then if they say gutters are all fine then it will most probably be the roof.

Bear in mind that where you see the damp may not be where the water is coming in. It travels to the point of least resistance. I had water damage in the sitting room but the bathroom radiator was leaking. It's probably something minor, but definitely get 3 quotes.

In my case, I need a damp specialist to diagnose whether it is raising damp or penetrating damp and potentially have membrane replaced. I pretty much suspect that the culprit is a terrace the previous owners built. A builder is not going to help me at this stage.
My point was, that looking at the situation and getting anxious is not going to get it fixed. A professional needs to come out and have a look. In op's case it is likely to be a roofer although, a dump surveyor will absolutely diagnose this Then, once all information is available, the OP can make a plan. None of us can diagnose this from the picture, we can simply offer our best guess. I am glad to see that someone is coming out to her on Wednesday and, hopefully, it's not a big repair.
My former landlord had a lot of work done when we had a similar issue and went through a number of builders each of whom had their own hypothesis. So he ended up doing quite a lot of work including entire facade redone with moisture resistant render and, a year later, removal of the chimney breast. It didn't fix the problem. So I would rather pay for a damp survey and know exactly what the issue is before I throw more money at the builder.

Pls call a recommended roofer and ask them to check the roof and guttering asap. It could be a few slipped/ displaced tiles, blocked guttering or something worse. The longer you leave it, the more expensive it becomes xx

Fair enough. I hope you manage to solve it easily.

I had similar and it was a loose roof tile, I called a roofer, he had a drone and looked at it that way. He did a quote then came back and fixed it.

It needs attention OP, but I don't think it's a catastrophic amount of damage, you've just got a leak somewhere. Our kitchen ceiling was worse than that just before we had the bathroom done, it was letting shower water through the very old wall panels, and the kitchen is directly underneath the bathroom 🤦‍♀️. It's all resolved now we've had the bathroom done, and watertight again. I'm sure once you find the source of the leak and get it sorted, it'll dry out and you can sand and paint it. You may need a special paint, as normal emulsion might not cover the stain. Sometimes the staining comes through, so you might need to use something like Ronseal one coat damp seal, or a cheaper option is to mix PVA glue in with the paint, which is what we do, as we get a few damp patches here and there - it's an old build.