Plumbing Emergency in a Block of Flats: Who to Call

First five minutes: stop the water and protect the flat below

Whoever ends up paying, the first job is the same. Water in a block does not stay in one flat: it runs along joists and down service risers, and a leak on the third floor can show up two floors down, or in the shop or restaurant at street level, within the hour.

• Find your own stopcock and close it. In flats it is often in the kitchen, a hallway cupboard, the airing cupboard or behind a bath panel, not always under the sink
• If water is near sockets or lights, switch off the electricity at the consumer unit. If the consumer unit itself is wet, or you would have to stand in water to reach it, leave it alone and keep out of the room
• If closing your stopcock does not stop it, the water is coming from somewhere you do not control: another flat or a communal pipe
• Knock on the flat below and warn them, and on the flat above if the water is coming from there
• Take photos and a short video of where the water is coming from and the damage, before you move anything

If you cannot find your stopcock, the stopcock in a flat covers the usual places, including the ones in communal cupboards on the landing.

Is it your pipe or the building’s?

This decides who to call. Most leases split plumbing roughly the same way, though yours is the document that counts, so find the repairing covenants in it once the emergency is over.

Pipes and fittings that serve only your flat, from the point they branch off the shared supply, are usually the leaseholder’s responsibility. That covers your taps, toilet, bath, boiler, radiators and the pipework feeding them, even where it runs under your floor.

Pipes that serve more than one flat are usually the freeholder’s, and the managing agent handles them on the freeholder’s behalf. That includes the rising main bringing water up the building, shared soil and waste stacks, communal tanks and pumps on the roof or in the basement, the supply pipe from the property boundary to the building (a leak in the street or pavement outside the boundary is the water company’s to fix) and, in blocks with communal heating, the network pipes feeding each flat’s heat interface unit, which a heat network operator may run instead.

A quick test: if closing your own stopcock stops the leak, the fault is almost certainly on your side of it. If it does not, and the water is coming from a ceiling, a riser cupboard or a shared wall, it is likely a neighbour’s pipe or a communal one.

Who to call, in order

Call the right person first and you save an hour. Calling a plumber to a communal leak they have no access to or authority to repair, or waiting for the agent over a leak on your own pipe, both waste time while the ceiling below fills.

If you run the shop, cafe or office on the ground floor and water is coming in from the flats above, ring the managing agent to find the source, and get a commercial emergency plumber to isolate the water on your side and limit the damage to your unit.

• Leak on your own pipework, and you own the flat: call a plumber directly, then tell the managing agent in writing that there was a leak
• Leak on your own pipework, and you rent: call your landlord or letting agent’s emergency number; if they cannot be reached and water is causing damage, stop it and keep a record of every call
• Water coming from the flat above: knock, and if nobody answers call the managing agent or concierge, who may hold keys for emergency access
• Leak from a communal pipe, tank or stack: the managing agent’s out-of-hours line; most agents run one for exactly this
• Council or housing association tenants: your landlord’s emergency repairs line, which normally runs through the night
• No water to the whole building: check with neighbours, then the managing agent and the water company, because the fault may be the building’s pump or the main in the street

Never force entry into another flat. If water is pouring in and nobody can be reached, call the managing agent and, if there is a danger to life, 999.

Renting a flat? What your landlord has to do

If you rent on a normal tenancy, section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 puts the landlord under a duty to keep the installations for the supply of water, gas and electricity, for sanitation, and for space heating and heating water, in repair and proper working order. In a block, that duty sits with your landlord even where the fault is in a communal part, although the landlord may then need the freeholder to act.

In practice, report the problem straight away by phone and then in writing, with photos. If it is a genuine emergency and your landlord cannot be reached, you can stop the water and make the flat safe. Before paying for a repair yourself, read a tenant’s rights in a plumbing emergency, because recovering the cost depends on how and when you told the landlord. Landlords managing a flat remotely may find landlord emergency plumbing useful as a same-night option for their tenants.

Who pays for the damage in a block

In most blocks, the freeholder or management company arranges buildings insurance for the whole building, and each leaseholder pays a share through the service charge. That policy normally covers damage to the structure and fixtures from an escape of water, such as ceilings, walls and fitted kitchens, subject to an excess. It usually does not pay to repair the pipe or appliance that failed.

Your own belongings are a different matter and fall under your contents insurance, whether you own or rent. If a neighbour’s leak damages your flat, the building policy usually handles the structure, and your contents insurer handles your things; your insurer may then pursue the neighbour if they were negligent. Leak from an upstairs flat: who pays goes through the common disputes, and making an escape of water claim covers the evidence insurers ask for.

When to get a plumber out tonight

If the leak is on your own pipework and you cannot stop it, or you have stopped it but have no water, no toilet or no heating, a plumber can come the same night. A plumber can also make your side of a leak safe while the agent arranges the communal repair, for example by isolating and capping a damaged branch. For water through a ceiling, see ceiling water leak repair.

The call-out is £60 at any hour, and the repair price is agreed with you on site before any work starts. Keep the invoice: the managing agent, your landlord or an insurer may ask for it later.