When a gale lifts tiles or a fallen branch splits a hip, the roof is only half of the problem. The other half is the claim. Insurers handle storm damage differently from a leak that has crept in over months, and the difference starts with a single word: storm. Your policy defines it, the insurer decides whether what happened fits that definition, and the evidence you collect does most of the persuading.
This guide is about storm claims specifically. It covers how insurers read the word, what to record before anyone touches the roof, what a roofer's report should say, how emergency make-safe work is paid for, and how the repair itself is agreed and settled. A slow leak with no single event behind it is a different conversation, covered in our guide to roof leak insurance. For everything else about fixing roofs, start at our roof repairs page.
How an insurer decides what counts as a storm
There is no single legal definition that every home policy shares. Each insurer writes its own, in the policy booklet, usually under a heading such as perils or events covered. Some describe a storm through wind strength, some through heavy rain, snow or hail arriving suddenly, and some leave the word loosely defined and judge each claim on its facts. The wording varies from one insurer to the next, so the only reliable way to know is to read the booklet your own insurer sent you, and the schedule that lists any extras you chose.
What nearly every insurer is trying to establish is the same thing: did a sudden, identifiable weather event cause this damage, or was the roof already failing? A slate that slips in a gale after years of a rusted fixing is a harder case than a tile thrown across the drive by the same gale. That is why the date matters so much. If you can say the damage appeared after the wind on a particular night, and the neighbours' roofs, fences or trees show the same night's effects, the story is simple to follow.
Wear and tear, and maintenance
Home policies generally exclude damage that comes from gradual deterioration or from poor maintenance. That does not mean a storm claim on an old roof is doomed. It means the insurer will ask if wind did the harm, or simply found a weak spot that was already there. A roofer's written observations help here, because they can describe what a break looks like: a fresh, clean fracture and displaced pieces point to a sudden event, while a long-standing crack with moss in it points elsewhere.
Check the excess and the limits
Read two further items before you ring. The excess is the amount you pay towards any claim, and it may differ for storm. Some policies also set conditions on unoccupied homes or on buildings in poor repair. None of this needs a lawyer, but knowing it before the call stops surprises later.
Evidence to gather before anyone climbs a ladder
The first job is to keep people safe. Stay off the roof yourself, stop children and dogs wandering under anything that looks loose, and do not pick up slate or tile fragments with bare hands if they are broken. Cement-based sheet roofing of older garages can contain asbestos, so leave any broken sheet where it lies and tell the roofer when you ring.
Then start a record while the evidence is fresh.
- Date and time. Write down when the storm hit and when you first noticed damage. A note on your phone is enough.
- Photographs from the ground. Begin with wide views of the house and the affected slope, then move in on whatever has landed on the lawn or drive: tiles, ridge sections, a downpipe, a branch. A zoom lens or phone zoom from the lane or garden shows a roof slope without any need to climb.
- Inside the house. Photograph ceiling stains, wet insulation and any water running down a wall. Put a bucket down, and photograph that too.
- The debris. Keep broken tiles and slates where you can, in a dry spot, until the insurer says otherwise. They show the type of break.
- The neighbourhood. If next door lost a fence panel or a tree came down on the lane, a photograph of it supports the date and the strength of the weather.
Why our survey adds to your record
When we survey a storm-damaged roof we photograph your own slopes, ridge, valleys and flashings, close up, and label each picture with where it was taken. Those pictures sit alongside yours. Where the roof is not safe to walk, we work from a ladder at the eaves or from a scaffold tower, and say so in the notes.
Phoning the insurer and what to say
Tell the insurer early. Most policies expect prompt notice of a claim, and many have a claims line that is open at all hours for emergencies. Have the policy number and your notes in front of you before you ring. Give the facts in plain order: what happened, when, what you can see, what is wet inside, and whether you have already arranged anything to stop further damage.
Ask four things on that first call:
- Does the insurer want to appoint its own roofer or loss adjuster (the person who assesses the claim on the insurer's behalf), or will it accept a report from yours?
- Is emergency make-safe work covered before the insurer has inspected, and what should you keep, such as receipts and photographs?
- Is there a claims reference you should quote to anyone who visits?
- What is the excess on this claim?
Write down the name of the person you spoke to and the date. If the insurer appoints a contractor, you can still ask for a roofer of your choice to report on the damage and to carry out the final repair; whether the insurer agrees depends on the policy and the claim.
Do not agree repairs that change the roof
It can be tempting to authorise a full replacement on the day, particularly if you are told the roof is old. Wait for the insurer's position first. Work that goes beyond the storm damage may not be paid for, and a roof renewed too quickly leaves the insurer no chance to see what was damaged.
What a roofer's report for a claim should contain
An insurer does not take a roofer's word that a storm did it. What a report can do is give the facts clearly enough that the insurer or its assessor can reach a decision without a second visit. A useful report has these parts.
- Address, date of survey and what the roofer could see from where. It should say whether the roof was walked, viewed from a ladder, or surveyed from the ground.
- A description of the roof. Covering (clay tile, concrete tile, slate, Cotswold stone tile), pitch, and the parts involved: ridge, hip, verge (the sloping edge at a gable end), valley and flashing (usually lead, dressed where roof meets wall or chimney).
- The damage, part by part. Which tiles are missing, which are cracked, whether a ridge has shifted, whether lead has lifted. Each item should be tied to a photograph.
- The likely cause. A fresh break, displaced pieces and debris in the garden support a wind event. The report should also record anything unrelated: old repairs, rotted battens, moss, slipped pegs. A report that hides these does the claim no favours, because the assessor will find them anyway.
- What was done to make it safe, if anything, and what is still exposed.
- The recommended repair, in writing, covering scaffold, stripping, new materials, labour, waste removal and making good.
The roofer reports on the roof. The insurer decides on cover. A good report never promises the claim will be paid, and ours does not.
Keep your roofer's report separate from the quote. The report says what happened; the quote says what it costs to put right. Insurers like to see both, but they read them for different reasons.
Make-safe costs and who pays for them
Emergency work to stop further damage is normally treated differently from the main repair. A make-safe may be as simple as securing loose ridge tiles and sheeting a bare slope, or as involved as scaffolding a gable to remove a leaning chimney. Our guide to temporary roof repairs shows what the work involves on site.
Many policies ask you to limit further loss once damage has happened, and some pay the reasonable cost of those steps as part of the claim. Others pay only after the insurer has agreed the scope. This is why that first phone call matters: ask whether make-safe works are covered, and how the insurer wants the invoice presented.
What to keep
Keep every invoice and receipt, and photographs from before and after the temporary work. The invoice should say what was done, to which part of the roof, and for how long the arrangement is expected to hold. If a tarpaulin or sheet was fixed, the invoice should show how it was secured. A homeowner's own tarpaulin is a separate matter, covered in our piece on roof tarpaulins.
Typical figures
MyBuilder's 2026 roof repair guide gives £500 to £1,500 as a typical range for storm damage fixes, and £250 to £300 as a roofer's day rate. Scaffold can dominate a bill when the eaves are high; for a full re-roof the same guide gives about £1,125. Treat all of these as national figures. What you pay is set out after our survey, in writing.
Agreeing and settling the repair
Once the insurer accepts that a storm caused the damage, the claim moves to how the repair will be paid for. There are usually two routes. In one, the insurer manages the repair through its own contractor and you pay the excess. In the other, the insurer settles in money, based on your quote or its own estimate, and you choose the roofer. The policy and the insurer's preference decide which you are offered. If you have the choice, a cash settlement gives you control of who does the work and when, while a managed repair takes the organising off your hands.
Repair to match the roof
The repair should return the roof to the condition it was in before the storm. On an older roof that means like for like: a clay plain tile replaced with a clay plain tile, a natural slate with natural slate, a Cotswold stone tile with a matching stone tile. If the roof is listed or in a conservation area, see our guide to listed roof repairs, and ask Stroud District Council's planning team what applies before anything is ordered.
Quotes, VAT and building control
Roofing repairs are normally standard-rated for VAT, so your quote shows VAT. If storm damage is bad enough to turn the repair into a large re-roof, the Planning Portal thresholds come into play: approval is not normally needed below 25 per cent of the building envelope and 50 per cent of the roof. We talk this through during the survey and deal with any notification.
When the repair waits for the weather
A claim often runs into winter, and a big repair may have to wait for settled conditions. Our guide to roof repairs in winter explains how that waiting period is covered with temporary works.
If the insurer says no, or offers less
A first refusal is not always the last word. Request the reason in writing, along with the policy wording in the policy it relies on. If the reason is wear and tear, the roofer's report is your best answer: it can describe the fresh break, the displaced pieces and the condition of the fixings around them, and it can say whether the damage matches the storm date. If the reason is that the weather was not severe enough to count as a storm, your photographs of the surrounding damage and the date you recorded come into play.
Where the insurer offers a figure lower than your quote, compare the two, and check each covers the same work. Differences are often scaffold, the number of tiles or slates replaced, or the grade of material, and they can be settled by a short phone call once the quotes are side by side. This is one reason we put everything in writing.
Complaints
Every insurer has a complaints procedure, and the steps are in its policy documents. If you are not satisfied once that process is finished, you can take the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, a free and independent route for disputes with insurers.
Meanwhile
Keep the temporary protection in place and check it after each spell of wind. Photograph any further damage and tell the insurer promptly, as new leaks may be part of the same claim. Our checklist for after-a-storm roof checks is a useful companion to your notes.