Collapsed ceiling in neighbours flat

[Ivyhedera]

Hello wonder if anyone is up who has any advice?
We put our washing machine on earlier, about 10minutes later neighbour (2nd floor) comes up to say he has a leak in his kitchen. Quite a lot of water coming down the walls. We go up and notice some water underneath the machine but nowhere near as much as downstairs neighbour anyway we unplug the machine and get the water out.
About an hour later we hear a big noise from downstairs neighbour's flat, we run down and the ceiling has collapsed over his kitchen counters and under where our washing machine, sink and dishwasher would be. Huge mess so we helped to tidy up, neighbour from 1st floor also reports some staining in his kitchen ceiling but not a lot.
It's an old tenement flat if that's relevant.
We have buildings insurance and contents insurance. Would either of these cover the damage? Washing machine is new LG one - bought and installed by AO in December.

Your neighbour needs to call their insurance company and they will then liaise with your insurance company. There should be a 24 hour emergency line. Take photos before clearing up.

Thanks for such a quick response! Do you know it's buildings insurance we should work with?

The policy will list what is covered. There is usually a summary page.

Whenever we've had leaks between flats, it's the buildings insurance that had covered it.

I have experienced most varieties of domestic calamity, but I think I called the contents people when the ceiling fell down due to sink overflowing.
It was buildings insurance when the kitchen wall began to part company from the rest of the house.

They will tell you though, so don't worry.

Yes the building insurance. We had our bathroom floor collapsed into our kitchen and our building insurance sorted it out. Like the other poster said take photos as the proof.

This happened to us. The freeholder liased with the building insurance for most of the repairs. There was also a claim on our contents insurance for some of the damaged items in the flat below.

We had exactly this except we were the downstairs flat!

We claimed on both buildings and contents insurance as I recall - buildings for the damage to ceiling and contents for damaged carpet, bed, bedding ( it was above our bedroom). I imagine the upstairs neighbours claimed on their insurances for damage their leak caused to their own flat.

My washer is upstairs and a leak once brought my own kitchen ceiling down.
Building insurance did cover that - replacing some units and replastering ceiling.
More complicated to sort out when it’s separate flats I imagine but shouldn’t be a problem.
(My leak was from washer hose connection, in the old days when they were hot and cold fill - the hot washer had perished. You could do with rigging up some kind of waterproof enclosure for your washer to stand in so that any future leaks can be seen and contained. Typical for it to happen late at night - good luck with it all!)

Nowhere near as much as downstairs neighbour because it's fallen straight through!

(“hot washer” = round rubber thing inside hose connector )

You'll probably need the paperwork regarding delivery & installation of the washing machine. It should be in good working order. Connection fault, perhaps.

Having said that, our previous washing machine had to be returned on the same day as it wasn't sealed properly due to a manufacturing defect. It happens.

Thanks very much this is super helpful and setting our minds at ease a little. The man downstairs is in his 80s and has been so kind about the whole thing, we just want to make sure he can use his kitchen ASAP...if we had thousands of cash sitting about we'd get someone to fix it tomorrow but sadly we don't. So will need work with insurance companies.

Realistically, he will need to speak to his own insurance companies - you won’t be able to do that for him.

You can help clean up as much as possible so he can use the kitchen, but make sure you take photos first

In the rush of the moment we cleaned up first then took photos...there's obviously a hole in ceiling but all the dirt is away now...

Where did the water come from that caused it ?

Somewhere from the back / under washing machine it seems like. An emergency plumber came up and said it was definitely the washing machine but didn't want to move it out to check pipes as didn't want to take responsibility for it...we have booked an LG engineer to come over by Tuesday.
An emergency joiner came up as well checked the rest of the sealing and said it was safe, he fixed some plywood over the area that was exposed so it looks better.
He did say the actual repair wouldn't be seen as an emergency under current covid restrictions so we may have to wait until the restrictions are lifted for someone to fix the sealing and redecorate the walls....

Buildings insurance. As a general rule of thumb, if you tipped the property upside down, anything which moves is contents, anything which stays put is buildings.

You can raise the claim or he can. It's likely they'll want at least two quotes for the repair work and to know that the leak has been made safe. You won't be able to claim for the repair of the leak but you will for any damage to your property. There will be an excess to pay, generally I suggest that the person who caused the damage pays for the excess as it was their fault the cost was incurred.

Has someone come in to check if neighbour’s house is safe? Get him to call his buildings insurance providers asap

Hi yes someone came out about 4 hours after the ceiling collapsed, inspected the ceiling, said it was safe and fixed some plywood over where it had collapsed.
The washing machine engineer can't come out until next Tuesday as our area is fully booked until then. I've tried to escalate it further and currently waiting on their 'planning team' to see if they can get an engineer from another area out sooner.
Until the engineer has been out to inspect and fix the machine neither ours or neighbours building insurance are willing to raise the claim.