"Insured the apartment to be calm, but in the end..." Minsk residents' one-bedroom apartment seriously flooded
"In the kitchen, the ceiling turned into a huge bubble and began to pull away from the wall with a screech. Eventually, it just burst, and boiling water flooded the floor up to the ankles," this is how Minsk resident Diana describes the flood that hit her one-bedroom apartment on a summer Saturday.
The entire riser was affected then — from the fourth to the first floor. But Diana worried less than her neighbors. The apartment was insured, so the girl was counting on fair compensation. However, reality turned out to be not so joyful: the payment from the insurance company amounted to 4000 rubles, and, according to the heroine, this sum will not be enough for a full renovation, writes Onliner.by.
The flooded apartment is a one-bedroom in an old five-story building on Alshevskogo Street, inherited from her grandmother. Over time, the property passed into the ownership of Diana's mother. While Diana was studying at the university, the one-bedroom apartment was rented out. Each new tenant, as they say, "abused" the interior as much as they could, and little of its former coziness remained.
A new stage in the life of the Khrushchev-era apartment began after Diana and her husband sold their previous home and bought an apartment in a new building. While the house is under construction, the couple decided not to spend money on rent and agreed to temporarily live on Alshevskogo Street.
To transform the worn-out apartment after the tenants into a comfortable space, the young couple re-wallpapered, installed stretch ceilings, updated the floors, put in new interior doors, and built a modern kitchen.
Satisfied, they moved their belongings in and lived peacefully for some time, when suddenly the unexpected happened — on July 4, the entire entrance was flooded.
The cause was a burst hot water supply hose in the kitchen of the apartment above.
— The day before, new residents — two girls — moved into the apartment on the top, fifth, floor.
On Saturday afternoon, July 4, I heard a strange screeching sound, similar to a short-circuiting wire. When I entered the kitchen, dirty water was already pouring down the glass backsplash from the ventilation shaft. My husband immediately ran upstairs, but no one opened the door there. And we had no contact information for the new residents or owners.
While her husband tried to find the owners or someone in the local Housing and Utilities Department (there was no one there on the weekend), Diana and her six-year-old son began to urgently salvage their belongings. They tore open bags to somehow cover the household appliances, quickly gathered documents, phones, and chargers. Simultaneously, the girl called 115 to report the critical situation.
— The water was rising rapidly: in the kitchen, the ceiling turned into a huge bubble and began to pull away from the wall with a screech and flying fasteners.
Eventually, it just burst, and boiling water flooded the floor up to the ankles.
Soon the water reached the main room — the canvas swelled, gradually stretching. In the hallway and bathroom, hot water was already seeping directly through the light fixture openings. Due to the pouring water and steam, the apartment quickly turned into a real bathhouse — it became difficult to breathe.
According to the girl, the boiling water seeped through the ceilings further down and flooded absolutely all apartments down the riser — right down to the first floor. At the lowest level, water was gushing directly from the sockets, and in the entrance itself, it poured from the ceilings, leaving dirty streaks behind. The affected neighbors ran out of their apartments, not knowing what to do.
— The emergency crew arrived approximately an hour after the call, but the specialists could not shut off the water. They explained that the building's main valves had simply rusted and wouldn't budge.
They had no right to break into the locked apartment to find the source of the flooding. The Ministry of Emergency Situations also could not do this unless there was a threat to people's lives. Therefore, they had to contact the police — they were the ones who took up the search for the owner. He turned out to be the father of the young man registered in the apartment. However, he only appeared at the house 2.5 hours later.
But even before him, one of the tenants returned. Upon entering the completely flooded room, she was bewildered.
Together with the repeatedly arrived emergency service, they began to look for shut-off valves in the bathroom. They were not found behind the plumbing hatch in the toilet — as it turned out later, during renovations they had been moved lower, behind the toilet. Having found the valves, the specialists finally shut off the hot water.
After this, Diana and her husband tried to put the apartment in order. Friends quickly came to help: together they bailed water out of the rooms. Simultaneously, they had to find a specialist who could drain the water from the stretch ceilings — the heroine had not even suspected the existence of such a service before.
The master arrived and drained more than 100 liters of liquid from the living room, preventing the canvas from tearing. Having gathered their salvaged belongings, the family went to spend the night at Diana's mother's place.
The apartment remained wet over the weekend. The husband and wife were not in a hurry to clean up the aftermath of the disaster: everything had to be preserved in its original state for damage assessment. There was no particular panic, however.
— We were relatively calm, as we had previously insured the apartment with "Belgosstrakh" for a damage compensation amount of up to 18,000 rubles.
On Monday, July 6, a master from Housing and Utilities Department No. 7 of Frunzensky District came to compile the initial inspection report regarding the flooding. Seeing the scale of the disaster, the specialist was shocked and proceeded to meticulously inspect everything. But even here, there were bureaucratic nuances.
— As the master explained, according to regulations, a Housing and Utilities Department specialist only assesses the damaged finishing — ceiling, walls, and floor coverings, and they simply do not include furniture in their reports, even though the kitchen set was seriously damaged by boiling water. However, the master agreed to write in the report about traces of flooding on household appliances: refrigerator, stove, air fryer, robot vacuum cleaner, microwave… He also strongly recommended not touching the finishing — for example, tearing off wallpaper, because everything was supposed to dry by itself. But we have vinyl wallpaper on a non-woven base; they literally lock moisture inside and prevent the walls from drying, provoking the appearance of mold.
And I am allergic to it — up to Quincke's edema, my husband and son are also allergic. Therefore, we did not heed the advice and installed powerful dehumidifying machines, which worked in the apartment for a whole week. We paid a considerable amount for their rent — 1500 rubles. Although if we had gone to court, it might have raised questions about us trying to minimize the damage ourselves even before the defect report was drawn up.
Representatives of the insurance company also visited the one-bedroom apartment (twice, in fact) to photograph all damages.
Almost three weeks later, the stage of assessing hidden damages and compiling a defect report, which had to be submitted to the insurance company, arrived. By law, this must happen no later than 20 days from the moment of flooding.
At the end of July, a commission, consisting of two Housing and Utilities Department masters, came to the one-bedroom apartment to prepare the final document. The son of the owner of the apartment upstairs was also present at the meeting — his presence as the party responsible for the incident was mandatory.
By that time, Diana understood that the main problems were hidden from view. Hundreds of liters of water had passed through the ceilings downwards, and what was happening under the wooden floor remained a mystery.
To check the boards for mold on site, Diana had called a third-party specialist in advance.
— At first, the Housing and Utilities Department representative stated: "I don't see anything that needs to be changed here." But when the master lifted a few boards, all questions disappeared: it was pitch black inside, and the humidity was simply off the charts. Then I tore off the wallpaper from the walls with my own hands: there were wet spots underneath, and mold was already thriving.
As a result, the following works were included in the defect report: replacement of stretch ceilings throughout the apartment, wallpaper in the kitchen, living room, and hallway, as well as the kitchen door swollen from moisture. Additionally, specialists prescribed mold treatment for walls and floors in all rooms, sanding, and varnishing of the boards.
However, the victims were not entirely satisfied with the document.
— I would really like the report to include traces of swelling on the kitchen set. Absolutely all cabinets inside were damaged by the hot water; only the facades remained intact. In addition, the costs for dismantling the floor were not included, and without exposing it, eliminating mold is simply impossible.
The family even sent a complaint to the Housing and Utilities Department. And here's the response they received:
Upon visiting the site on 06.07.2026, employees of Housing and Utilities Department No. 7 compiled a report regarding the flooding at the specified address. As a result of the inspection, it was established that the flooding occurred due to a leak in the flexible hot water supply hose to the sink in the kitchen of the apartment located above.
Floods originating from apartments located above or nearby due to defects in pipelines, engineering systems, and equipment within the responsibility of the owners (tenants) are considered domestic floods. The report on the flooding dated 06.07.2026 has been signed by the interested parties, namely the culprit and you (as the affected party).
The defect report for repair and construction works in the damaged premises dated 21.07.2026 includes works to restore the finishing damaged by the flooding and requiring replacement. You, as an interested party (victim), have also signed this report.
— So, to prove the obvious, I need huge resources. I need a lawyer, and that's from 340 rubles just for a consultation. I need somewhere to live while this whole story drags on, and renting an apartment in our area costs about $500 at the current exchange rate per month. I need to find time for court hearings, while mold grows and everything rots in the closed apartment. And for what?
For independent specialists to conduct an expensive examination and simply write in their conclusion: "unidentified black spots, demolition may be required"? And all this just because the Housing and Utilities Department categorically refused to include the phrase "floor demolition" in the defect report.
Nevertheless, the defect report, as well as documents for the kitchen, receipts for the rental of dehumidifying machines, and the inspection of household appliances, were sent to "Belgosstrakh". There, they promised to calculate the amount of damage and pay the family insurance compensation.
In mid-August, the long-awaited compensation arrived — Diana's mother, for whom the insurance was taken out (she is the owner of the housing), was transferred almost 4000 rubles. However, the amount surprised the family members: in their opinion, the received money will clearly not be enough for a full restoration of the apartment.
After consulting with specialists and carefully studying the documents, Diana discovered a whole series of serious discrepancies between the defect report, the submitted receipts, and the final calculation of the insurance company.
— For example, the document indicated the need to replace the stretch canvas with a total area of 30.06 sq. m, but "Belgosstrakh" only took into account 4.7 sq. m. A similar situation arose with the wallpaper: instead of a replacement area of 72 sq. m, only 51 sq. m remained. The calculation of wear and tear on kitchen furniture also proved controversial. We purchased the set on August 13, 2022, and the flooding occurred on July 4, 2026. The period of actual operation was 3 years and 11 months. As I was explained, according to the calculation rules, this period is rounded to four years, which at a standard annual rate of 14% gives 56% wear. However, when forming the payment, "Belgosstrakh" calculated the wear and tear on the kitchen set at the maximum rate — 70%. And they paid me about 300 rubles in compensation for it. Also, the compensation for the use of dehumidifying machines was not included in the payment.
The family again contacted the insurance company with a request to review the calculations. They promised to sort everything out.
Journalists also sent an official request to "Belgosstrakh" to get explanations for this situation. We present the part of the response that directly concerns our case.
"The final payment was made taking into account the replacement of the stretch ceiling over the area specified in the defect report (30.06 m²); replacement of wallpaper over the area specified in the defect report (72 m²); the actual cost of the kitchen set taking into account its wear and tear of 56%; paid expenses for the rental of dehumidifying machines in full."
And this is what the full text of the letter looks like
Journalists also contacted Housing and Utilities Department No. 7 of the Frunzensky District of Minsk. The communal service asked about the general rules for compiling documents: what exactly should be included in the defect report, who and how is obligated to record damage to furniture and household appliances, and whether the report can be supplemented if new consequences of the flooding are discovered later. At the time of publication, we had not received a response to the request. As soon as it arrives, we will definitely update the article.
After Onliner's appeal to the insurance company, the situation did indeed change for the better. Diana said that "Belgosstrakh" recently transferred another sum to the family — significantly larger than what was paid earlier. Now, according to the victims, it should be enough for the repairs.
— Our case was taken under control and a specific specialist was assigned to us. We were promised that all amounts within our insurance limit would be covered. Since the company is currently finding it difficult to assess the exact cost of chemical treatment for the apartment, we were allowed to bring in receipts for wall and floor mold treatment later — this will also be compensated.
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