What to do if you are flooded by your neighbors: sequence of actions

There are several options for answering the question of what to do if your neighbors flooded you. Cases can be very different: whether you are insured or not, your neighbors flooded you with malicious intent or by accident, what to do if your neighbors are not at home and your apartment is flooded - there can be a lot of nuances. This article looks at some specific cases and describes what to do if you are flooded by your neighbors.

From the article you will learn:
What to do if your upstairs neighbors flood you and don’t open the door;
Step-by-step instructions: 14 actions after you are flooded;
How to draw up an act if the neighbors above flooded;
How to correctly assess damage from flooding of an apartment;
What to do if the insured apartment is flooded;
What to do if your neighbors are constantly flooding;
Filing a claim in court for damages;
What to do with the ceiling if the neighbors flooded;

What to do if your upstairs neighbors flood you and don’t open the door

What to do if you are flooded by your upstairs neighbors, but due to certain circumstances it is impossible to establish contact with them? Never resort to breaking down doors. Only the police have the right to take such actions, and even then not in 100% of cases. What to do if your neighbors flooded you, but they themselves are not at home? The very first thing you need to do is focus your energy on eliminating the cause of the accident. Sometimes this requires blocking the general access of water to the entrance. Ideally, these actions should be performed by employees of the emergency team, who must be sent to you by the management company. Contact its representatives by phone as soon as possible, noticing the initial manifestations of the flood, and report what happened.

If your neighbors flooded you, and the emergency crew does not arrive at the scene of the emergency for a long time, you will need to eliminate the cause of the accident on your own. This should only be done in exceptional situations. It is important to remember that you are fully responsible for your actions or decisions. If you cause damage to public utilities, you will be required to compensate for the damage caused. Excuses that in this way you saved your home from a flood will not help you evade responsibility. For this reason, it is best not to do anything yourself until the emergency service specialists arrive, who usually arrive within a very short time after registering the application.

How to determine who is to blame?

There are certain rules by which those responsible for flooding of housing are quickly identified . The company that manages the house is responsible for the common building hot and cold water risers, that is, if an accident occurs with a pipe, the management company will be responsible.

The owner of the apartment is responsible for all kinds of pipes throughout the apartment, taps, plugs and plumbing, and if problems arise that lead to flooding of the neighbors below, he will be the responsible person.

A complete list of responsible persons, indicating various nuances, can be found by studying Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 491 of August 13, 2006, Article No. 36 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation and Part 1 of Article No. 290 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.

If your neighbors are flooded, what to do: step-by-step instructions

We present you with step-by-step instructions on what you need to do if you are flooded by your neighbors:

Step 1: Turn off the power.

You should do this first. The liquid medium is capable of conducting electricity, which under certain conditions can pose a lethal threat. Turn off the power supply even if you are absolutely sure that you are not in danger or if your home has already been disconnected from the network for preventive purposes for several days. In a situation where you are flooded by your neighbors, you should know that the power is off.

Step 2: Warn your downstairs neighbors.

What to do if your upstairs neighbors flood you? First of all, take care of those who live below you, because they too can be affected by the accident. Having learned about the flooding, your neighbors will take any action to minimize their own damage, protect themselves if possible, or provide the necessary assistance to you in order to more quickly correct the consequences of the emergency.

Step 3: Contact upstairs neighbors if possible.

What to do if your neighbors flooded you, but they themselves are not at home at the moment? Try to find a way to connect with those who live above you. You may be familiar with the contact details of their relatives, colleagues or friends. If you don't know your neighbors' phone numbers, ask other residents of the building or the management company. As a last resort, there are help services, as well as the Internet, where there is a service for searching telephone numbers by last name or address. It often happens that your upstairs neighbors rent out their apartment. In this situation, you can contact the owner of the apartment, notify him about the accident, ask him to come himself, or urgently call your tenants.

Step 4. Call the management company if you are unable to contact the tenant.

What to do if your neighbors are flooded, they themselves are not at home, and you cannot contact them? Notify the person in charge of the house or those who can contact him to block the water supply through the riser.

Step 5: Make sure your pets are okay.

When you are flooded by your neighbors, you may lose sight of your pets due to extreme excitement. It often happens that cats get stuck in some places, such as cracks from half-closed window frames, where they hide out of fear. Make sure your pet is safe.

Step 6. If your neighbors flooded you, solve the problem of safety of your property. Once you've taken the necessary steps and know that someone is coming to your aid, it's time to think about securing your belongings. The first thing you should take care of is the items that are most valuable to you. In many cases, you can save your valuables by simply moving them to another room. It doesn’t often happen that your entire home is immediately submerged in water. Protect your property with film or polyethylene, use waterproof materials: bags, cling film, clothes made of water-repellent fabrics. More often than not, if your neighbors flood you, the water will seep in from above, so you can put all your most valuable things on, for example, an ottoman that sits in a safe corner. Cover everything you want to protect with protective material, including items on the ottoman itself, since if it is flooded for a long time, it may get wet. There may also be water on the floor, so check to see if there are any important things lying there. If yes, then remove them from there to a higher place.

Step 7. Place containers under running water.

Obviously, this step does not require any special comments.

Step 8. If there is too much water on the floor, scoop it up with a ladle or bowl and pour it into a nearby bucket.

There is no need to immediately pour the collected liquid into the sink or toilet. On the one hand, this is tiring: if a flood occurs in the next room, you can quickly lose your strength. On the other hand, this is fraught with the loss of some valuable thing, for example, jewelry, which you may not notice in a hurry. It would be a shame if this were added to the frustrations over flooding.

Step 9: Remember to gather evidence of the extent of the damage caused.

Record the fact of flooding using a photo or video camera. Next, take a photo or video camera of what your apartment looks like after all the procedures to eliminate the source of the accident and dry the apartment.

Step 10. It would be best to arm yourself with additional evidence in addition to video and photographic materials.

Enlist the support of the residents of the house who witnessed your disaster, and their consent to participate in legal proceedings, where they can confirm your information. Next, draw up an act that will reflect the situation at a given point in time. In some cases, after your neighbors have flooded, it is worth inviting independent experts to determine the extent of the damage caused to you.

Step 11. Feel free to call the services and remind them about yourself.

It is worth noting that poor quality work of emergency services is quite common today. If your neighbors flooded you and you left a request with the dispatcher of the organization servicing the house, this does not guarantee that emergency service specialists are already rushing to your aid. Your application may well be missed for some reason. Therefore, if your neighbors are flooding, remind the dispatch service about yourself and your problem every five minutes, starting from the moment when specialists should have appeared at the leak site. Keep in mind that if your neighbors are flooding you, no one will help you better than yourself.

Step 12. Find out the reason for what happened.

After your neighbors have flooded you, at the first convenient moment find out the reason for what happened: figure out who owns the apartment that flooded you. If the neighbors who flooded you agree to admit their guilt, try to mutually resolve the problem.

Step 13. Draw up an act.

Step 14. If the issue cannot be resolved amicably, go to court.

How is the fact of a flood recorded?

The consequences of flooding the apartment must be recorded in an act, the drawing up of which requires a representative of the management company. He must be called immediately.

While he is gone, there is no time to waste, you need to do the following:.

Take photos and videos of the damage caused. Your photographs and video will be evidence in court if litigation becomes inevitable.
Invite your neighbors. Two or three people will be enough to act as witnesses when drawing up the act.

If by this time a representative of the management company has not yet approached, you can begin to draw up the act without him.

Representatives of the management company do not always have the opportunity to immediately appear to inspect the apartment and draw up a report: you can assemble a commission of neighbors and draw up the necessary document yourself

The procedure for drawing up the act

So, we need to draw up a report on the consequences of flooding the apartment.

It must include the following data:

document's name;
full address of the affected apartment;
date of act: day, month, year;
the composition of the commission is listed in full; it includes: the victim (you), neighbors who are invited as witnesses, those responsible for the damage caused (if any) and a representative of the management company (if any); do not forget to indicate the position of the representative of the management company;
essence of what happened: briefly list the facts, describe the apartment.

For example, the author of the act may indicate that he (full name) drew up this act in the process of inspecting apartment N, located at the address (full address) upon the fact of the flood from apartment N, located on the floor above.

The affected apartment is located on such and such a floor of an N-storey building, and contains N rooms. If the cause of the accident is identified, it must be indicated. Otherwise, you can write the probable cause.

Go to the descriptive part

At the beginning of this part of the act you should write: “The commission established on the day of the survey...”. Not all consequences of flooding may occur immediately. Sometimes it takes 2-3 days. If new consequences are discovered (the parquet has reared up, for example), these facts will need to be added to the act as an addition.

Initially, the parquet may not look damaged, but after a few days, when the coating begins to dry out, it may become completely unusable

It is also necessary to mention that the act was drawn up based on an external inspection. With instrumental monitoring, the scale of troubles may be more significant, because not every breakdown is visible to the eye.

It is necessary to carefully record all information about signs of flooding:

in what rooms they are located;
where exactly are they located - ceiling, walls, floors;
intensity of existing traces;
We list all the damaged property - furniture, appliances, parquet, interior elements.

If the owner of the apartment in which the leak occurred allows it, you can include a description of the location of the leak in the act. Everything you see in this apartment needs to be included in the report: wet floors, emergency plumbing with a crack, etc.

When conducting photo and video filming, this fact must be mentioned in the report. Subsequently, it is advisable to print out photographs and have them certified by all members of the commission. If the person who caused the damage refused to sign the act, it’s okay: you just need to record this fact in the document.

Despite the fact that there may be a lot of damage and describing them will take a lot of time, do it: your determination will not leave the culprit with the illusion that he will get away with it

A representative of the management company must also draw up a report of approximately the same content, with a mandatory indication of the cause of the accident. Make sure he points out everything you think is important. If there are controversial issues, do not hesitate to make comments. The finished document must be supplemented by a defective statement.

When managers find themselves at fault for an accident, they try to distort or “fail to replace” the essential facts that determine their guilt, because they want to avoid responsibility or reduce its volume.

Remember that your goals are different, yours is compensation for damage. The management company must provide you with one copy of its act.

By the way, if the affected apartment is not privatized, you should carefully study your social rental agreement, since the owner of such housing is the state.

What to do if the neighbors above are flooded, and how to draw up an act

The act is the main confirmation that a flood occurred; it contains an exact indication of the day and hour of the flood, as well as a list of all material damage.

As a rule, the act is drawn up in two copies. It is compiled by a special group of neighbor-witnesses and employees of the organization involved in maintaining the house. The first copy belongs to someone who suffered from the flood. It is very important to draw up a document immediately after the water stops, at the latest the next day after your neighbors flooded you. Without written confirmation in hand, you will not be able to sue those who caused you damage, which means you will not be able to recover your losses. Therefore, do not hesitate and draw up the report yourself, even if representatives of the organization servicing the house never arrived at the scene of the accident. Be sure to involve several people from among your neighbors as eyewitnesses to what happened to your home on the day of the flood. The document must reflect the fact that the company that services your home ignored the call and did not show up on the scene. In addition, the flood report usually contains the following information:

Why did the leak occur (a problem in the pipeline, negligence of neighbors or other reasons). It is possible that in case of disagreement, an assessment by independent experts will be required. This service is paid, and the costs are borne by the interested party. The amount paid can be compensated according to a court decision.
Listing of all things and objects damaged by flooding (furnishings, carpeting, household appliances, lighting, wardrobe items, floors, ceilings, walls, etc.)
It is advisable that when registering a flood report, there are neighbors who flooded you. They must confirm the damage caused in the report. If the tenants are at fault, and not the real owner, this becomes especially important, since often the court determines the guilt and the amount of compensation for the damage caused. If the perpetrators do not agree to sign the flooding report, this should also be reflected in the document.
The flooding act may not have legal force if there are no signatures of the entire group and the owners of the flooded apartment. Please take care to draft this document carefully.
If there is an independent examination of the amount of damage caused, it is necessary to add these papers to the flooding report. The work of independent experts is not cheap, so it is advisable to seek their help only if the damage from flooding is truly extensive.

If you are flooded by your neighbors and you decide to leave a telephone request to call specialists, be sure to check and remember the personal information of the employee registering your call. This must be done in order to competently draw up a claim for government representatives in case your application is ignored and the management company fails to act. From a legal point of view, in addition to an application by telephone, it is advisable to also write letters (in a couple of copies). The copy accepted by the relevant institution must be registered and stamped.

Some defects do not appear immediately, but after some time from the moment your neighbors flooded you. What to do in these cases? Sometimes after 3-4 days it is necessary to issue an additional report containing information about such damage.

In this case, the presence of other neighbors and the owner of the apartment that flooded you will also not be amiss. However, the act is drawn up even in the absence of the culprit. It is important that all parties involved in the inspection sign a completed document stating that your neighbors have flooded you.

There are cases when your neighbors are flooding you, and the management organization ignores your request to call a specialist and does not contact you. What to do if you are faced with such a situation? Complete the application in writing and send it by mail with notification (with a list of attached documents and delivery of the letter directly to the addressee). If you decide to hand over this letter, it must be registered as incoming correspondence by an employee of the organization that maintains your building.

Apartment flooding act.doc

Pre-trial problem solving

Remember that your goal is not a quarrel with your neighbors, but compensation for the damage caused to you. The best way out is always to reach an agreement without resorting to court and forget about this annoying situation.

You need to talk to your neighbors about pre-trial compensation for the damage caused not immediately, but after 2-3 days from the date of the flooding. During this time, as a rule, all hidden defects caused by the accident appear.

The amount of damage becomes obvious, as does the amount of work to be done. Make a written claim, attaching an estimate of upcoming work to eliminate the damage.

Try not to bring the matter to court: firstly, a peaceful resolution of the issue saves you time and effort, and secondly, you still have to live nearby

It happens that the perpetrators immediately pay the victims the entire amount, but such facts are rather exceptions than the rule. But even just the consent of neighbors or the management company to compensate for the damage caused by their fault is already good.

An agreement on such compensation must be drawn up in writing and certified by a notary, indicating the date of final payment. Do not neglect the services of a notary, even if it seems to you that you are confident in the intentions of the opposite party. The agreement is accompanied by an estimate of the upcoming work signed by the parties.

The fact of completion of settlements between the parties to the conflict can be certified by a receipt that the victim gives to the perpetrator of the flooding. It must indicate that the amount of damage caused by the accident has been paid in full and the injured party no longer has material claims.

Neighbors above flooded: what to do and how to evaluate

What should you do to assess the damage caused to you if you are flooded by your upstairs neighbors? Expertise on the damage caused is carried out by organizations that have permission to provide this type of service. A specialist is present at the scene of the incident in person and examines it.

Being in need of this procedure, you are obliged to inform the neighbors who flooded you about the arrival of the assessment expert. What should you do to notify your neighbors who flooded you? The best option would be to send a registered message, which should reach the recipient within three days minus weekends. If the neighbors who flooded you wish to be present during the inspection of your apartment, make sure that they sign the document that the appraiser will draw up.

You need to provide the specialist with all the documents confirming your expenses for compensation for damage caused by your neighbors being flooded. These may be acts of repair and finishing, checks confirming the cost of damaged pieces of furniture, equipment and other things affected by flooding. The expert takes photographs of all violations and attaches the photographic materials to his examination, which is also a document confirming your right to repair work as compensation for damage. Compensation for the costs of paying for the work of an assessment expert can be demanded through the court from the person through whose fault the flood occurred.

What to do if your neighbors are flooded after drawing up the documents

If your neighbors flooded you, the first thing you need to do is understand who is to blame for the flooding. The following versions are possible here:

neighbors living above you;
service organization;
an organization that carried out installation work of the water supply system in the premises itself.

To figure out who is responsible for what flooded your apartment, your neighbors or service organization, you need to establish the cause of the flood, what exactly happened, who owns the premises in which the emergency occurred.

There are cases when neighbors living above have nothing to do with flooding on the floors below. Often the cause of an accident lies in failed or worn-out sanitary communications. A leak may occur due to damage in the pipeline, which will lead to flooding. What to do if you have exactly this situation? In this case, the blame for what happened will lie entirely with the service company. If the case goes to court, then it is this organization that will be held accountable to the residents of the affected apartments.

If your neighbors actually flooded you through their own fault, it may turn out that it will still be the state, not them, who will be held liable in court. This can happen when the premises in which the flood occurred were not privatized by the owner.

A flood can also occur due to repairs on the pipeline. There is a possibility of a sharp surge in pressure or rupture of the radiator due to frozen water inside it, which was not pumped out in time. In these situations, the blame lies with the organization that was responsible for carrying out work on the pipeline. To prove the company's guilt, a special audit must be carried out.

Common reasons why your neighbors flood you:

rupture of cold water pipes;
rupture of hot water pipes;
rupture of heating pipes (except in summer);
damage to sewer pipes;
damage to internal drainage pipes;
problems with household appliances that use water.

First actions

If such a situation arises, you should not become hysterical; the main thing is to maintain self-control and act thoughtfully .

The first thing to do is to eliminate the leak and protect your life by de-energizing the apartment. To eliminate the leak, it is necessary to shut off the water supply to a separate area (entrance or floor) that supplies the apartment of the neighbors above or to the entire house, if the water supply of the house is a single system.
To do this, you should call a plumber from the management company servicing your home. Turning off the power supply to the entire apartment is another step that will help protect your life and health, since water is a conductor of electricity, and a leak can cause a short circuit in the electrical wiring. To turn off the power, you must turn off the automatic fuses in the electrical panel (located in the apartment next to the electricity meter or in the entrance on the floor). If you have no idea how to do this, then call an electrician from the management company.
The next step is to notify your neighbors. The reasons why flooding occurs are different - a neighbor forgot to turn off the water, the water supply lines within the neighbor’s apartment broke, improper dismantling of plumbing, etc.

It is important to remember that apartment owners often do not know that they have flooded the residents under them, since they may not be at home at the moment.

What to do if your apartment is flooded by upstairs neighbors who admit their guilt

What to do if your apartment is flooded and your neighbors agree to admit their guilt? It is best if you can agree with them on material compensation for the damage caused. In the event of a peace treaty, you will not only keep your psyche healthy, but also save yourself from spending on court proceedings. Try not to aggravate the problem with the neighbors who flooded you, but to peacefully discuss all issues and disagreements, find a compromise on all the details.

If, after your neighbors were flooded, you managed to come to a mutual agreement with them on the payment of compensation, put it on paper, indicating the amount of the payment and the time frame within which it will need to be made. This paper is certified by a notary. Compensation may be in the form of monetary compensation or repair of damage to the affected premises.

What to do if your apartment is insured and your neighbors flooded

Those who have taken care of insuring their home often believe that if they are flooded by their neighbors, they can easily and immediately receive monetary compensation from their company. But you need to understand that it is not so easy. What to do if your neighbors flooded you and you want to receive compensation from the insurance company? You need to take some action. If there are any inaccuracies, compensation will be delayed or not made at all.

Let's figure out what to do if neighbors flooded an apartment that was insured?

Step 1. If your upstairs neighbors flooded you, you noticed a wet area appearing upstairs, or the wall covering began to creep away from water that got on them, find out the possible source of the leak. It is clear that as the amount of incoming moisture increases, the damage will increase. Try your best to reduce its scope. Notify your neighbors about the emergency and ask them to turn off the water.

Step 2: Be sure to call your insurer. If your neighbors are flooding you, this is exactly what you need to do to achieve two goals at once. One is to inform the insurance company about the incident. This is usually one of the main conditions of such organizations. Another is to get advice on what to do if you are flooded by your neighbors. Chances are that you will get lucky and an insurance company representative will soon be on the scene, assessing the damage and informing you what paperwork you need to provide to claim your situation. This is the best case scenario, but it is worth considering the likelihood of another scenario and knowing what to do if it occurs.

Step 3. Ask the housing office to come to your commission to assess the damage. If your neighbors are flooded, representatives of the housing office, as a rule, must come to the scene. There is a special ledger where such calls are recorded. An inspection of the damaged apartment is carried out in the presence of the neighbors who flooded you. At the end of this procedure, a flood report will be drawn up, which reflects all the results of the accident.

Step 4. If you are flooded by your neighbors, then in some cases it is advisable to conduct your own independent assessment of the damage. This will be justified if you are unhappy with the amount of compensation provided by the insurer.

Peaceful resolution of the issue when the apartment is flooded by neighbors above

Before going to court with a lawsuit or claims against someone who you think is guilty of what happened, it is important to remember that guilt will need to be proven. If it is recorded that you were flooded, other authorities may be involved. After all, the damage will be recovered from the one who is truly guilty of actions or inactions. The main thing is not to delay making a decision, consult a specialized specialist.

Peculiarities . Before complaining, you must carefully read the drafted act and the commission’s conclusion. If the neighbor can prove that it was not his fault for the flood that occurred, then he will be exempt from compensation. After all, the reasons can be not only leaks in the roof or similar reasons, but also a burst riser, as well as other incidents that do not depend on the negligence or inattention of neighbors. When an apartment is flooded due to the fault of the housing and communal services or the developer, and this is officially proven, then it is they who will compensate for the damage incurred.

What to do if your neighbors are constantly flooding

What to do if you are flooded by your upstairs neighbors once is to some extent clear.

But where to turn if this happens all the time? What to do if your neighbors flood you again and again?

It is useful to be informed that if you are constantly flooded by the same neighbors, they may be denied further residence in the apartment. Such unscrupulous people infringe on the freedom of others living in this house, and according to a court decision, they can be punished by eviction.

What to do if your neighbors have flooded you repeatedly and continue to do so? On your part, you must provide all evidence of repeated requests to your neighbors to compensate for the damage they caused, informing them that they are violators of your rights, and also that the neighbors are not taking any action to solve the problem.

Filing a claim in court for damages compensation

So, filing a lawsuit for compensation for the damage caused and, possibly, a request to deprive the offenders of this housing are the answers to the question “What to do if your neighbors have flooded you several times?”

To carry out the above actions, you need to collect certain papers and attach them to your claim, where you should indicate the details of who is responsible for the constant floods. The following documents are required:

a photocopy of the act confirming that your neighbors flooded you;
a report of defects, which states the value of the damaged items and the amount of costs for restoration work in the damaged premises;
an examination report on the damage caused by your neighbors being flooded;
photographs and videos;
confirmation of tax payment.
budget for restoration measures carried out by the emergency team to eliminate flooding;
papers certifying ownership of residential premises.

Be prepared for the fact that even if a court decision is positive for you, people forced to compensate for the damage will not be able to do this immediately and in full. Litigation in court can only increase the cost of solving the problem. Such issues are often effectively resolved through home insurance. Then you are guaranteed to be able to receive the compensation due to you due to the fact that your neighbors flooded you. Being insured, you will protect yourself from such cases associated with the dishonest behavior of neighbors who flooded you. You will have no doubt what to do if your neighbors flood your apartment again: contact your insurer by phone, and he will solve the problems that arise.

What should you do if your neighbors flooded you, but they are in no hurry to compensate for the damage caused to you, even though there is a positive court order for you? You should re-send your appeal to the judicial authorities so that you can be issued a writ of execution. From this moment on, the issue of payment of compensation will be under the control of the bailiff, who will determine the amount of the monthly payment and offer debtors options for their implementation.

In the process of drawing up a statement of claim, certain obligations of the defendant to the plaintiff should be indicated. These include: recovery from the defendant of the amount spent on paying for legal proceedings, including payment of tax, payment for legal services and services for examining the damage caused. The plaintiff has the right to demand from the defendant the fulfillment of these obligations after a court order has been issued.

Statement of claim for apartment flooding.doc

What to do if you are the culprit of the accident

Be polite, meet people halfway and try to resolve everything peacefully. If it worked out and you compensated the expenses, take a receipt for this so that you don’t have to pay twice. Don't forget about your rights. Go down to the residents below and document the damage in photos or videos. This way, the victim will not be able to increase the scale of the flood and will not add extra items to the list of damaged items.

If you are nevertheless charged with extra expenses, conduct an independent examination on your part. In the event of a lawsuit, you will receive a statement of claim, which you need to respond to. It notes those points from the act with which you do not agree. Contact a lawyer to avoid large payments.

What to do with the ceiling if the neighbors flooded

What to do if your neighbors flooded you and the ceiling in your apartment was damaged? If you notice a wet area on the ceiling, it means that moisture has entered your apartment along the joints and other empty spaces between the panels. Very often, electrical wiring is located in interpanel joints, so getting it wet can cause problems and stop the flow of electricity. Sometimes liquid begins to flow directly onto the lighting fixtures!

This can cause electrical fires and pose a serious danger to the occupants of the home.

If your upstairs neighbors are flooding you, then the most important thing to do for safety reasons is to turn off the electricity .
Next, you need to call the emergency control room or inform the security guard that your neighbors have flooded you, if the house is controlled by an independent company and is under the protection of a special service.
The next thing to do is to go to your neighbors to help eliminate the cause of the accident (if possible) and prevent further spread of moisture.
The source of the flooding has been neutralized, but there will be traces of leaking moisture on your ceiling that need to be repaired. Further actions depend on the type of ceiling covering .

If wood (MDF) or natural wood cladding is used, you should remove wet parts of the cladding as soon as possible after flooding and dry them.

If you observe deformation of individual sections of the ceiling - an increase in the size of parts of the MDF sheathing due to a large amount of moisture - there is no other way out but to install new ones instead, because even after drying they will remain deformed.

Useful recommendations in case you are flooded by your upstairs neighbors and you want to repair the ceiling:

In the case of a tension covering consisting of panels, remove some of them to completely dry the surface underneath.
If the ceiling was painted with water-based paint, damage can be repaired only after it has completely dried.
Do not start painting or whitewashing the ceiling if it is not completely dry! The water that remains inside can appear on the surface of the ceiling through traces of the rusty frame. To deal with this problem, you will need to remove the freshly applied coat of finish. It is better to wait until the ceiling is completely dry after the flood is over and then begin restoration work.

If, after being flooded by your neighbors, you plan to carry out repairs and protect your premises from water using insulation, you will need to carry out this work on a wet concrete surface. To do this, you need to remove all the finishing layers of the ceiling and thoroughly moisten it.

If the flood did not leave any traces of rust on your ceiling, you can eliminate the defects with light cosmetic repairs, touching up only the damaged areas. If you are unlucky and your ceiling remains decorated with rust after being flooded by your neighbors, it is worth spending the extra effort to remove all the paint from the ceiling, then prime the traces of rust with a special solution and only then paint the ceiling again with fresh paint. It is also possible that you will need to smooth out the surface by removing previous finishing layers.

What to do if you are flooded by your upstairs neighbors and you have a suspended ceiling

If you are flooded by your neighbors and a suspended ceiling is installed in your apartment, the first thing you need to do is calm down: a suspended ceiling can hold a certain amount of water accumulated in it.
Turn off the power. Always, if you are flooded by your upstairs neighbors, this is what you need to do first.
After you notice that your neighbors are flooding, try to determine the source of the accident as soon as possible. Contact your neighbors, call management companies, leave a request with the dispatcher. Urgently call the emergency crew to block the water supply and eliminate the source of the problem.
If your neighbors are flooded, offer to help them collect water. This will save your stretch ceiling from even greater damage.
Contact the company that installed your suspended ceilings, describe your situation, and call an employee to your home.
If the water in the suspended ceiling is rising, but the company employee is still not there, try to remove some of the water yourself.
Look for special holes made, for example, for lighting fixtures or technical communications.
These holes can be used to drain water through them into specially prepared buckets or basins. For convenience, you can use a hose. Make sure you have a sufficient number of containers for the liquid to be drained.
Be very careful when draining the water so as not to damage the ceiling. Try by all means to maintain the integrity of the material. This will be a condition for the stretch ceiling to return to its previous form after the end of the flood.
Don't be alarmed if there are dents in the ceiling after draining all the water. The employee you call to your home will deal with this defect without difficulty.

In conclusion, I would like to note that the readers of this article are most likely both victims of flooding and the perpetrators who are interested in knowing what actions people in disaster can take

Repairing a balcony slab for neighbors above

Since renovations are being carried out by neighbors on the floor above, logically, the owners of the balcony should do it. But if you are unlucky with your neighbors and they refuse to bear the costs, there are two options: contact the utility services or carry out the repairs yourself. Let's consider the procedure for repairing a balcony slab from above on your own.

Preparing the slab for repair

First of all, the old coating and cracked screed are removed. All loose mortar is removed and unstable pieces of concrete are knocked out. The joint between the slab and the wall of the house is well cleared, and any defects found are sealed with cement mortar. If there are potholes and cracks on the surface, they should also be repaired and leveled. The surface of the slab must be flat, without sharp changes, so that the waterproofing layer placed on it does not deform or break through.