leak from bathroom to kitchen

hi,

i have had a leak last week which started from my bathroom and ran down to my kitchen through the ceiling,and it looks like this happened over a long period of time.
i was advised to speak to a quantity surveyor and he will be able to fight my corner for me with the insurance company.
can someone explain briefly how the insurance company assess the damage,bearing in mind that a plumber had to cut a 3ft square hole in the kitchen ceiling to source the leak which has now been fixed,

aidan

As far as I remember it depends on the cause of the leak. We had a similar leak a number of years ago in a new house. The insurance guy came out and was able to pinpoint where it was coming from and turned out we weren't covered because it was an issue with the installation of, or rather faulty installation of the shower tray (basically builders didn't seal it in properly) so the insurance didn't pay out but the builder in fairness came back and patched the exposed area and had it repainted for us and also sealed the tray properly.

By the way the builders weren't taking responsibility in the beginning at all!