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A tenant facing spending Christmas in a hotel says he is 'emotionally drained' after his flat was flooded by a burst water main.

Jan Smolaga, 31, woke to the sound of water dripping into his one bedroom rented basement flat in Malpas Road on Thursday morning as water cascaded down the street in Brockley.

Six basement flats were reportedly submerged in the flood but Mr Smolaga believes his home suffered the worst damage after speaking to neighbours.

He took video footage of water gushing down the steps outside his flat and into his hallway.

He managed to salvage some of belongings but the damage to his home will cost thousands of pounds to repair, he says.

He told the Standard: "I was in shock. I thought it was a dream. I thought 'What is going on'. I stepped out of bed into a puddle of water. I just had a rush of thoughts; 'What do I do? Can I stop it?' In the space of half an hour it had flooded the entire flat.

"I managed to move most of my stuff up high on to shelves but I was stuck in the flat for two hours."

He added: "I have a pet cat and she was going absolutely nuts. I was worried she would get swept away."

Mr Smolaga, who works as head of programmes for an adventure travel company, has been told he faces up to three months of living in a hotel before he can return home.

He claims he struggled to get a response from Thames Water over the weekend about the subsequent clean-up operation despite calling them more than 20 times.

He said customer service representatives had been "rude" on the phone and generally unsympathetic to his plight.

He said: "I feel isolated and emotionally drained by what's happened. I now have a mountain to climb. Luckily I have had a couple of friends who have been able to help me.

"Some of the call centre workers for Thames Water were rude. When I asked what was going on their answer was basically 'We are putting you up in a hotel, what more do you want us to do?' No one has called me to say sorry or to clearly tell me what the next steps are."

A spokesperson for Thames Water said Mr Smolaga was likely to be reimbursed for all the damage to his home.

In a statement, the company said: "What happened to the properties in Malpas Road was awful. We have spoken to Mr Smolaga personally and apologised for what happened. We have also taken responsibility for chasing up our professional firm of loss adjusters to make sure all his questions and concerns get addressed fully, as quickly as possible.

"We treat each customer individually in these difficult circumstances and agree an individual plan tailored to them. Some people will need financial support and our insurers will provide this, as we do in all similar cases."