Okay, We got problems

[Ecumenist]

We recently bought a home, (we've been in it 5 months). It's a 2 story home and it was a bank owned, so they didn't have to disclose anything. We have a master suite that includes a "garden tub" that we'd never used until the last two weeks. The tub was used for the first time about 10 days ago and a second time tonight. There is a room beneath the master bath on the first floor and about 4 days after the first use of the tub, I went into the downstairs bedroom and noticed an odor that smelled like it had been wet in there. I opened the windows after searching for the source of wetness, (didn't find anything) and the next day it was gone.

Tonight, my husband took a soak in the tub and as far as we knew, everything was peachy keen. About 2 hours later, I was getting ready to retire and realised I had to place my phone back on the cradle to charge it. The cradle is in the downstairs bedroom. When I walked into the room, I noticed that it looked like someone had turned a shower or an overhead sprinkler and gotten the room wet on one third of the room. I looked for the source of hat was obviously a deluge of some sort. Finally, I looked up and lo & behold, the water had come through the bloody VENT!! There was still droplets of water on the vent in the ceiling. The wall perpendicular to the one where the vent is is VERY damp to the touch.

How is it possible for water to POUR through the vent from a tub upstairs? I'm talking about the vent for the heat & air and should we have it inspected, the crawlspace between the floors ...AND OMG, if there's problems that has caused in the area between the floors, will our homeowner's insurance pay for it? This is the worst thing that could happen at this point but I also know that this is something we need to jump on.