A water heater leaking above someone else

Updated October 2026

The first three calls

Close the cold water valve above the heater and turn off the gas control or the breaker. The steps are here if you need them.

Then knock on the door below, or phone. Water from a second-floor closet reaches the ceiling underneath within minutes, and the person down there can move things and put out buckets only if they know.

Then call the building. In a condo that is the management company or a trustee. In a rental it is the landlord. Then call a plumber: (617) 549-5734.

The pan that should be under it

Massachusetts plumbing code requires a pan under any water heater of six gallons or more that is installed above occupied space. The code calls it a safe waste pan. It has to be at least two inches deep, wider than the heater by two inches all around, and piped to a drain or down to within a foot of the lowest floor.

Plenty of older upstairs installations have no pan at all. When one of those is replaced, the new installation has to meet the rule. On a replacement the code allows an alternative to running a drain line from the closet: a pan with an approved automatic shutoff device that closes the water when the pan gets wet.

Ask how the new installation will meet the pan rule when you get the price. It changes the quote, and it is the part that protects the neighbor next time.

In a condominium

There is no Massachusetts statute that makes the upstairs owner automatically responsible for the damage below. Who pays is set mostly by the building's own documents and by two insurance policies.

The condominium statute requires the association to insure the common areas, and leaves each owner free to insure the unit. In practice the association's master policy covers the common areas and whatever else the documents assign to it, and your own unit policy, usually called an HO-6, covers what the master policy does not. The Division of Insurance tells condo owners to carry coverage for everything the master policy leaves out.

Two provisions come up after a leak. The statute lets an association charge an expense to a single owner when it results from that owner's failure to follow the master deed, bylaws or rules. And the Division of Insurance notes that many association documents allow the association to assess a unit owner for costs tied to a loss under the master policy, the deductible being the usual one.

So read the bylaws and the rules for anything about water heaters, and call your own insurance agent the same day.

This is a plain summary of the sources linked above, not legal advice.

Two- and three-families

In most two- and three-families each apartment has its own heater in the basement, and a leak there is a wet floor, not a wet ceiling. The exception is the converted attic or third-floor unit with a heater tucked into a closet. That one is covered by the same pan rule.

If you rent, the hot water rules for landlords are here.

Before the old heater is carried out

Photograph the heater in place, the label with the serial number, the floor around it, and the ceiling below if the neighbor will let you. Write down when you found the leak and when you closed the valve.

A homeowners or condo policy generally covers damage from a sudden, accidental discharge of water from an appliance. It does not cover the appliance, and it does not cover damage from wear that was left alone. The photographs and the times are what show which one this was.