Water damage: what to do in the first 48 hours

Water damage in a let flat is settled, or gets out of hand, within the first two days. After that the water has had time to cross a floor slab, the neighbour’s paint has blistered, and a plumbing call-out has turned into a building site with a loss adjuster.

Here is what to do, in order, whether you are on site or four thousand miles away.

Hour zero: turn off the water

The first reflex is neither to call the insurer nor to look for someone to blame, it is to shut off the supply. In most Israeli flats the stopcock sits in the service duct near the entrance, or in the water heater cupboard.

Every tenant should have been shown this on the day they moved in. It belongs in the condition report, with a photograph of where the valve is. That sounds excessive until the night somebody is looking for it at midnight.

Hour one: photograph before you mop

The natural urge is to soak it up. Photograph first: the source of the leak, how far the water has spread, the furniture affected, the marks on walls and ceilings, in your flat and the neighbour’s if it has travelled.

Those time-stamped photographs are what will establish the origin of the loss and bring the right policy into play. Without them, everything is argued from memory, several weeks later, in front of an adjuster.

First hours: work out where the water is coming from

The answer determines who pays, and it breaks into three branches.

A plumber identifies the origin in one visit. That is a modest cost against what it avoids: without the diagnosis, each insurer points at the other and weeks pass while the damage worsens.

Within 24 hours: notify

Policies generally impose a short notification window, often a few working days. Notifying early costs nothing, even if the origin is not yet established; notifying late can be enough to have the claim refused.

If neighbours are affected, tell them immediately, even where responsibility is not established. A neighbour informed the same day stays an interlocutor; the same neighbour who discovers the source three weeks later becomes an opponent.

Within 48 hours: dry it out

This is the step most often skipped, and the one that costs most when it is. A wall or floor left damp develops mould, and what would have been a repaint becomes stripping out the finish.

In Israel the heat helps, but not in a closed room. Ventilate, open up, and bring in a dehumidifier if the affected area is significant.

What changes when you live abroad

All of the above assumes a quick decision. An owner in New York or London usually learns of the loss from a message sent hours earlier, and has no way to send anyone round.

This is exactly the situation where management on the ground changes the nature of the problem. The tenant calls a local number, someone attends, shuts off the water, photographs, calls a plumber they know, warns the neighbours and notifies the claim. The owner receives a report, and a quote if there is work at their expense.

Without that, the whole chain rests on the tenant, who has neither the same obligations nor the same interest.

What could have been avoided

A good share of the water damage we deal with comes from known causes that can be checked in advance:

• Flexible hoses on washing machines and dishwashers, which split after a few years.
• Older water heaters, whose tanks eventually perforate.
• Shower and bath seals, which let water through to the slab unseen.
• Balcony and terrace waterproofing, tested by every winter.

Those four are checked during the twice-yearly inspections we carry out in the properties we manage. A replaced hose costs a few dozen shekels. The same hose bursting costs a ceiling.