Insurance Claims Guide

Will Your Insurance Pay for Storm Damage to Your Roof?

Tiles on the lawn, a damp patch spreading across the ceiling, and an insurer who'll want proof it was the storm and not the roof's age. Here's what buildings insurance actually covers, the evidence that gets roof claims paid, and the three ways we help across Stockport and East Cheshire, starting with a free quote.

The honest answer: yes for storm damage, no for wear and tear.

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Evidence first. Photographing the damage before anything's disturbed is the step that decides most claims.

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Stockport & East Cheshire

We're Daniel Scott Roofing, a family-run team of roofers covering Stockport and East Cheshire, and every stormy spell puts us up on roofs insurers are asking questions about. Insurers themselves tell claimants to get an itemised quote from a local tradesperson, and that's us: assessed, photographed and quoted in writing, free. What we don't write is the formal inspection report some insurers require to validate a claim. That comes from NWRS, our independent survey partner, who don't carry out repairs at all, which is exactly why their word counts. We do the roof. They do the report. The claim stays yours.

Written by the Daniel Scott Roofing team Last updated July 2026

The honest verdict

Buildings insurance covers storm damage to a roof that was in reasonable condition before the weather hit. It doesn't cover wear and tear, and that one exclusion decides most roof claims. Your insurer will check two things: whether the weather in your postcode met the policy's definition of a storm, and whether the storm, or the roof's age, was the real cause. Both arguments are won with evidence. Your three routes to getting it are below, and the first one's free.

Does Home Insurance Cover Storm Damage to Your Roof?

Yes, if the damage was sudden and the storm caused it. Buildings insurance exists for exactly this: tiles stripped by wind, a ridge lifted, flashing torn away, a felt roof punctured by debris, and the water that got in through the hole the storm made.

What it never covers is a roof that was already failing. Wear and tear, gradual deterioration, and anything a reasonable owner should have fixed years ago are excluded on every policy we see, and insurers apply those exclusions hard. Fences and gates are usually excluded too, whatever the wind did to them.

Insurers paid out a record £585 million for weather damage to homes in 2024, and the Met Office expects winter windstorms to keep getting stronger. So the cover is real and it pays out at scale. Whether your claim pays comes down to two tests, and the next two sections take them in order.

Does Home Insurance Cover Roof Leaks?

Only when something insured caused the leak. If a storm strips tiles and rain gets in, the storm damage and the water damage it caused are normally covered. If water is coming through because the felt has perished, the flashings have opened up or the tiles have simply aged, that's wear and tear, and no standard policy covers it. There's a third case worth knowing: rain finding its way through gaps in an otherwise undamaged roof often needs accidental damage cover, an optional extra on many policies.

So the question your insurer will ask isn't "is the roof leaking?" but "what made it leak?". Answering that is leak tracing, which is the diagnostic work we do every week, and it's the difference between a claim and a repair bill.

What Counts as a Storm for an Insurance Claim?

"It was really windy" isn't a storm to an insurer. Most policies define one with thresholds, typically along these lines:

Typical insurer storm thresholds by weather type
Weather	Typical policy threshold
Wind	Gusts of 55mph or more
Rain	25mm or more in an hour
Snow	30cm or more in 24 hours
Hail	Intense enough to damage hard surfaces

The first thing your insurer does with a claim is pull specialist weather data for your postcode and check it against that definition. Definitions vary between insurers, so the policy wording matters more than the Met Office headline.

Two things worth knowing. Recent seasons have opened with named storms carrying gusts above 90mph, so the threshold is cleared more often than people think. And the recorded wind speed isn't always the end of it: the ombudsman has sided with homeowners where local weather reports showed storm conditions even when the insurer's number said otherwise. Pass the weather test and the argument moves to the roof itself.

The Wear and Tear Trap: Why Storm Damage Roof Claims Get Rejected

Almost every rejected roof claim dies on the same sentence: "the storm merely highlighted a pre-existing issue." Here's how the argument actually gets decided.

When a declined claim reaches the Financial Ombudsman, they work through three questions. Did storm conditions occur around the date of the damage? Is the damage the kind a storm causes? And was the storm the main cause, rather than the condition of the roof? Yes to all three and the claim should be paid.

Two things sit in your favour. If the insurer wants to rely on the wear and tear exclusion, proving it applies is their job, not yours. And the ombudsman has criticised insurers for declining roofs off the back of an aerial photo without a proper inspection. A vague decline is challengeable. A detailed one, backed by evidence, usually isn't.

Which is where we owe you the other half of the truth: sometimes the insurer is right. A nail-sick slate roof that sheds tiles in a 40mph blow isn't storm damage, it's a roof at the end of its life, and we'll tell you that to your face rather than help you build a claim that'll fail. What you need either way is an honest read on which one you've got. Ours is free. And if your insurer wants the answer proven formally, that's a different document from a different company, and both routes are next.

A storm claim isn't an argument about the weather. It's an argument about the roof.

Roofer's Quote or Roof Report? Your Three Routes for an Insurance Claim

Free

Itemised repair quote

We look at the roof, give you an honest read on whether it looks like storm damage or wear, and put an itemised repair quote in writing, usually the same day or the next working day, storm week or not. The quote is a price for the work, not the proof of cause your insurer needs. The formal report that settles whether it was the storm or wear is a separate job we don't do, and route 3 is where it comes from.

Best when: the storm's just happened and you need to know where you stand before you ring the insurer.

Get your free quote

Quoted per job

Stop the Leak

If water's coming in, we make the roof safe and dry first, guaranteed: if the leak returns before the full repair is done, we come back free of charge. Keep the make-safe invoice, because insurers expect you to stop things getting worse and the paperwork proves you did. If we do the full repair, the make-safe cost is credited back against it. And insurance-funded work carries the same guarantee as any other job we do; the insurer paying doesn't change the standard.

Best when: water is getting in and you need it stopped now to protect your property and keep you dry. Acting fast to limit further damage is also what insurers expect.

Stop it today

Priced by NWRS

Independent insurance roof report

A fully impartial report from North West Roof Surveys stating whether the damage is consistent with a sudden weather event, written for submission to insurers and loss adjusters. NWRS don't do repairs, which is exactly why their word carries weight when the cause is disputed. Priced by NWRS once they know the property and what the report needs to cover.

Best when: your insurer requires a formal report, disputes the cause, or independence is the point.

How we arrange an NWRS report

One thing we'll always do before you claim: put the repair cost next to your excess. If the fix is £280 and your excess is £350, a claim gains you nothing and could still count against you at renewal, and we'll say so. Whether to claim is always your decision. Our job is making sure it's an informed one.

Roof insurance claim routes at a glance
Route	Cost	Best for	What you get
Itemised repair quote	Free	You've just had storm damage and need to know where you stand	Itemised written quote plus photos
Emergency make-safe (stops the leak)	Quoted per job, make-safe credited back	Claim accepted, or fixing it regardless	Guaranteed-dry make-safe, the repair, before-and-after photos
Independent NWRS report	Priced by NWRS	Insurer requires a report or disputes the cause	Impartial formal report for insurers and loss adjusters

Storm damage on your roof?

Send us photos today and we'll tell you straight if you've got a claim.

Send us your photos 0161 566 7522

The Evidence That Gets a Storm Damage Claim Paid

The ombudsman's own guidance says clear, detailed expert reports backed by photos are the most persuasive evidence there is. Build the file like this:

Photograph everything before it's disturbed, wide shots and close-ups, inside and out, on a phone that date-stamps.
Keep the debris. Blown-off tiles in the garden are physical evidence. Don't bin them.
Write down the date and the conditions, and which named storm it was if there was one.
Keep every make-safe invoice. Insurers expect you to stop things getting worse, and the paperwork proves you did.
Get the weather on record: reports for your postcode on the date, not the national headline.
Get a roofer's honest read and an itemised quote. Our free opinion tells you whether it looks like storm or wear, and the written quote gives you a price to work from. Neither is the formal proof of cause, so if your insurer wants that answered, an independent NWRS report (route 3) is the document that does it.

How to Claim for Storm Damage to Your Roof, Step by Step

Make it safe, not fixed.

Stay off the roof yourself. Get make-safe done if water's coming in (guaranteed dry, invoice kept, cost credited if we do the full repair), but no permanent repairs until the insurer's seen the damage or agreed the scope.

Photograph and record.

Everything in the section above, before anything's disturbed.

Notify your insurer promptly.

Some policies set claim windows; all of them look sideways at delay.

Get the itemised quote.

The document the claim runs on, and the one the insurer will ask you for anyway. Free from us.

The loss adjuster's visit.

They're appointed by the insurer, and it shows. Be there, have your file ready.

Repair and sign-off.

Work done to the same standard and guarantee as any job we do, completion photos to close the file.

Roof Claim Rejected as Wear and Tear? What to Do Next

A rejection letter isn't the end, it's the insurer's opening position. Complain formally first: they get eight weeks to respond. If the answer's still no, or they miss the deadline, the Financial Ombudsman is free and it's where wear-and-tear declines go to be tested against those three questions.

The precedent worth knowing: a couple's storm claim was declined because the nails under their slates were rusty. They commissioned their own contractor's report, the ombudsman found it more detailed and more persuasive than the insurer's evidence, and the insurer was told to reconsider. Rusty slate nails, incidentally, is what we call nail sickness, and it's on half the Victorian terraces in Edgeley.

That's the fight where independence matters, and it's why the dispute route runs through NWRS rather than us. We'd profit from the repair; NWRS wouldn't. Their report answers one question with no stake in the answer: storm, or wear? That's the document a dispute turns on, and it's the one we hand to our partner rather than write ourselves.

When Your Home Insurer Asks for a Roof Report: Flat Roofs and Renewal Conditions

Not every insurance roof report follows a storm. Home insurers increasingly make cover conditional on a professional inspection, usually where there's a large or ageing flat roof, at renewal or when you switch. Those reports come from NWRS, and if the report finds work needed, that's the part we do: a modern EPDM or fibreglass flat roof with paperwork reassures an underwriter the same way it reassures a buyer's mortgage valuer.

Storm Damage in Stockport and East Cheshire: What We See After Every Big Blow

Storm damaged slate roof in Stockport with missing and broken slates, repaired by Daniel Scott Roofing as an insurance claim. — Missing and smashed slates after high winds and rain: an insurance claim we assessed, quoted and repaired in Stockport.

The Pennine edge

Marple Bridge, High Lane, Disley

First postcodes to clear 55mph when the wind gets up. Ridge tiles and stone slate go first, and the weather data usually backs the claim.

Victorian & Edwardian terraces

Edgeley, Reddish

Slipped slates after a storm are where nail sickness meets the wear and tear exclusion. This is the stock where honest triage matters most, and where a re-roof conversation is sometimes the truthful answer.

1930s semis

Bramhall, Cheadle Hulme, Hazel Grove

Cracked chimney flaunching and brittle clay tiles. Individually small claims, quick to evidence and quick to fix.

1960s & 70s estates

Offerton, Woodley

Verge pointing and powdering concrete tiles, the covering insurers most often call end-of-life. Evidence and honesty decide these.

Roof Insurance Claims: Frequently Asked Questions

Is the water damage inside my house covered too?

Usually, yes, when the roof damage itself is covered. Buildings insurance normally picks up the internal damage the storm caused, ceilings, plaster and decoration, while contents cover handles your belongings. Photograph the internal damage as carefully as the roof, and don't redecorate until the insurer has seen it.

Can I use my own roofer for an insurance repair?

Normally, yes. Insurers routinely ask claimants for an itemised quote from a local tradesperson, and most are happy for your own contractor to do the work provided the quote is reasonable and itemised. Some offer their own network as an option. Check your policy, but you rarely have to accept it.

Should I repair the roof before the insurer has seen it?

Make it safe, don't make it permanent. Insurers expect you to stop the damage getting worse, so temporary make-safe work is fine and the invoice supports your claim. Permanent repairs before the insurer has assessed the damage or agreed the scope can undermine the claim, so hold off until they have.

How long do I have to claim for storm damage?

It varies by policy. Some insurers set no formal deadline but every one of them expects prompt notification, and some policies expect to hear within weeks of the storm. Delay also invites the question of when the damage really happened. Note the date, photograph everything, and ring them as soon as you reasonably can.

Will claiming for storm damage put my premiums up?

It can affect your renewal price, and after a widespread storm, premiums in affected postcodes can rise whether you claimed or not. That's why we'll always put the repair cost next to your excess first: if the numbers don't justify a claim, we'll say so, and the decision stays yours.

Do I need an independent report or just a roofer's quote?

For most claims, the itemised quote (free from us) plus your own photos is exactly what the insurer asks for. A formal independent report is only needed when the insurer requires one, disputes the cause, or makes it a condition of cover. Those come from NWRS, and never from us.