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Ah okay so it's like car insurance in that my insurance would contact his insurance, make a claim and then he'd see a higher premium if his flat was at fault (his contents insurance). Or they'd contact the building insurer (which is partially my policy) if it's the buildings fault.
And per the earlier comment he'd have to allow access to insurers plumber or one I appoint to sort it
bobble
Yup, so for me, our kitchen and bathroom were both affected, to about the same level as yours. So we had to have two walls and the ceiling repainted in both rooms. We're in London so it's expensive, and I went with a guy who charged me £800.
We went through the buildings insurance, which tends to have a higher excess than personal insurance, in this case £800. But as we went via a joint claim, I split that with the flat upstairs. We each paid £400 but he decided to really push his claim to the limit and got his entire kitchen and bathroom re-decorated and re-plastered - at a cost of a good few grand - for the same excess. It's not a great business model - you still have to pay the cost initially and there's a chance the insurance won't stump up - but if you were planning to do it anyway there is very much an incentive to try to put as much as you can on the insurance.
You contacting the insurance (personal or buildings) means that any resolution will go via the insurance companies. If the responsibility lies with your upstairs neighbour, that means their premiums will likely go up as a result. If the responsibility lies with the building, that means the building's insurance premiums will go up as a result. Either way, it means the upstairs neighbour cedes control of the problem and resolution, which they may not want. (Usually if someone is a professional landlord they'll have people they want to use.)
I would just ping him a message asking if he'd rather go via the insurance for making good or sort it out himself, get a gauge for how he's feeling, and you can make a decision based on how seriously he seems to be taking it. I agree that going via the insurance is more likely to get you a better result but the increased premiums may also end up affecting you, especially if you go via the buildings insurance.