Keep everyone away from a sagging, bulging or cracking ceiling and from wet lights, switches, power points, appliances or switchboards. Leave the affected area if water creates an electrical, collapse, sewage or fire risk.
Turn off only a clearly identified, dry and safely accessible fixture or apartment isolation valve. Notify the body corporate or building emergency contact immediately and, if you rent, use the emergency contact in your tenancy agreement.
What should you do first?
- Restrict access. Keep people and pets outside the affected area while its conditions are assessed.
- Stop the apparent source only when it is safe. Use a known local stop tap or apartment valve without entering a locked service area or touching common-property equipment.
- Alert the right contacts. Notify the building or body-corporate emergency contact and the likely source apartment. Renters should also contact the nominated emergency repairer or property manager.
- Give useful observations. Report the affected apartment, when the leak began, whether it changes with rain or fixture use, and any ceiling or electrical hazards.
- Record damage after immediate safety is handled. Take dated photos or video from a dry, stable position and keep all reports, messages and receipts.
Do not delay an urgent response to gather evidence. Call 000 for fire, smoke, sparking or an immediate threat to occupants.
When should everyone leave the room?
Clear the area if the ceiling is swollen, sagging, cracking, shedding material or changing shape. Do not stand under it, press it or puncture a water-filled bulge.
Move belongings only when the ceiling is stable and the route is dry. A container may help with a minor drip, but only where you can position it without entering the ceiling's fall zone or approaching electricity.
Water from a toilet, drain or wastewater pipe may be contaminated even when it does not look dirty. Avoid contact and keep children and pets away until the source is identified.
What if water is near electricity?
Do not touch wet fittings, appliances, wiring or a damaged switchboard, and never stand in water to operate a switch. Leave the affected area and arrange urgent electrical assistance.
Power should be isolated only when the main switch and the path to it are dry, undamaged and safely accessible. Solar, battery and incoming supply equipment can remain energised after a main switch is turned off.
Read the separate steps for when a water leak reaches electrical equipment. A licensed electrical contractor must assess water-affected fixed wiring or equipment before it is returned to service.
Which water valve can you use?
Use a valve only when you know what it controls and can reach it without entering water or approaching electrical hazards. A fixture stop tap may control an overflowing appliance or fitting, while an apartment isolation valve may stop the whole lot supply.
Do not guess which common valve to operate, enter a locked plant room or shut down another apartment's services. Tell the building contact if the source cannot be controlled through a known safe valve.
An upstairs occupant can stop using a suspected shower, toilet, tap or appliance when asked safely. Neither resident should dismantle a fixture, ceiling or waterproofing assembly to search for the fault.
Who should you contact?
| Contact | Why they may be needed |
|---|---|
| Body corporate or building emergency contact | Coordinate common-property action, contractor authority and access to service areas or another lot |
| Nominated tenancy emergency contact | Authorise and coordinate emergency repairs for a rented apartment |
| Licensed plumber | Locate and control a plumbing source and perform regulated work within licence scope |
| Licensed electrician | Assess water-affected wiring, fittings, appliances or switchboards |
| Insurer or broker | Explain the relevant building or contents policy, evidence process and claim requirements |
For a Queensland residential tenancy, a burst water service, serious water leak, serious roof leak and dangerous electrical fault are listed emergency repairs. The Residential Tenancies Authority sets out the contact process, including making every effort to reach the nominated emergency contact.
Can a plumber enter the apartment above?
A plumber cannot simply force entry because water appears below another lot. Contact the occupier and body corporate so access can be authorised and coordinated.
Queensland body-corporate guidance says a body corporate can authorise a plumber or another person to enter a lot. The entry must be for an inspection or work the body corporate is authorised or required to perform.
The usual written notice period may not apply in an emergency, but the body corporate must still authorise the person. Occupants should not use that emergency provision as permission to enter another home or a locked common area themselves.
Does the ceiling location identify the source?
No. Water can travel along pipes, slabs, framing, insulation and penetrations before appearing through the ceiling. The drip may be displaced from the failed component.
A leak that follows rain points to a different investigation from one that starts when an upstairs shower, toilet, washing machine or tap is used. Follow the safe roof-leak response when the pattern is weather related.
If it follows shower use, the source could involve supply pipework, drainage, a fixture seal or the wet-area assembly. Our guide explains how shower waterproofing failure should be assessed without assuming it from one stain.
Who is responsible for the failed pipe?
Do not assign responsibility from the location of the indoor drip. In Queensland, the answer can depend on the registered survey plan and lot boundary. It can also depend on the pipe position, which lots it serves and whether an owner installed it for that lot.
A body corporate is usually responsible for utility infrastructure that is common property. An owner is generally responsible where infrastructure serves only that lot, lies within the lot and is not within a boundary structure, but exceptions can apply.
Use the Queensland guide to body-corporate plumbing and waterproofing responsibility after the source and scheme boundaries are known.
A plumber can report where the water is coming from and what work is required. They do not determine an insurance dispute or finally interpret a contested lot boundary.
What should the plumber be told?
- the affected apartment and exact rooms
- when the water began and whether the flow is increasing
- whether rain, shower use, toilet use or an appliance cycle changes it
- which safe valves have already been closed
- visible changes to ceiling lining and nearby electrical equipment
- whether sewage or another contaminant is possible
- who can authorise entry to the source lot and common service areas
These observations help plan access and safety controls, but they are not a diagnosis. The contractor still needs to identify the source before opening finishes or proposing repair.
How should insurance evidence be handled?
Building insurance, contents insurance, maintenance responsibility, liability and the policy excess are separate questions. A policy may respond to resulting water damage without paying to maintain the failed pipe or assembly.
Contact the body corporate and relevant insurer or broker promptly. Keep wide and close photographs, a timeline, damaged-item details, plumber and electrician reports, access correspondence, quotes and receipts.
Do not promise that the body corporate, another owner, a landlord or an insurer will pay. The source findings, scheme documents, maintenance history and policy wording must be considered first.
Our guide to whether body-corporate insurance covers water leaks separates the building, contents and failed-infrastructure questions.
What should happen after the water stops?
A stopped drip does not prove the ceiling, insulation, framing or electrical equipment is dry and safe. Keep the damaged area isolated until the relevant hazards have been assessed.
Obtain the source report, confirm who can authorise the permanent work and match each affected element to the appropriate licence.
Contact the body corporate, relevant insurer and appropriately licensed professionals with the final reports, licence details, compliance records and correspondence. Retain copies in case damage reappears or responsibility is later disputed.