When roof damage goes onto a home policy claim, the insurer is not simply asking what is broken. It wants to know what broke it, when, and whether the roof was in fair order beforehand. Those answers decide whether the loss is treated as sudden damage from an insured event or as a gradual fault that the policy leaves out. A report that stays silent on them leaves the insurer free to fill the gap with its own assumption.
A roofer is well placed to supply part of the picture. We are up at the roof, we can see the broken edges and the old staining, and we can say in plain words how the fault has developed. What we cannot do is confirm the weather on a given date, or predict how an insurer will respond. The claim is yours, made under your policy, and the report is one piece of evidence you attach to it.
Below is what insurers and the Financial Ombudsman Service weigh, how sudden damage differs from wear on a roof, what a useful report records, and what to do before any repair begins. For the wider picture of surveys we carry out, see our roof inspections and surveys page.
The questions an insurer asks about a roof loss
The Financial Ombudsman Service settles disputes between homeowners and insurers, and it publishes the reasoning it applies to weather claims. In essence it asks three things. Did a qualifying storm occur on the day the damage appeared? Does the damage look like what such weather generally does? Finally, was it the weather that tipped a sound roof into failure, or would the damage probably have appeared anyway? Its description of a storm is violent winds, normally with rain, hail or snow. Everything a roofer writes should help answer one of those three.
The first question belongs to weather records and to you. Note the date you noticed the damage and what the night was like, and the insurer checks its own data. Which? reported in November 2025 that insurers often work from a definition built around a stated gust strength, so a blustery day that falls short can be classed as ordinary weather.
The second question is where a roofer's eye counts. Wind lifts tiles in recognisable ways. Slipped tiles along an edge, a ridge section peeled away, a verge cap on the lawn or a chimney pot on the path all fit the pattern. A tile that has crumbled in place after years of frost and moss does not.
The third question is about cause. If the ridge mortar had already perished, the insurer may argue that a gale only finished what age had started. The report should state the condition of the surrounding roof in neutral terms, without guessing at policy wording.
One more point on burden. The Ombudsman says an insurer relying on an exclusion has to prove that it applies. That does not make any claim certain to succeed, but it explains why dated, specific evidence matters on both sides.
Sudden damage or wear and tear on a roof
Most disputed roof claims turn on this line. Policies usually pay for sudden damage caused by an insured event and exclude deterioration that builds up over time. The Ombudsman notes that exclusions frequently take in damage that has happened gradually. Which? gives a plain example of what an insurer may point to: water entering a home through a poorly maintained roof.
On a roof the difference shows in the evidence. Fresh damage tends to show clean, bright break surfaces, displaced items lying nearby, and sound material either side of the fault. Gradual failure shows layers of history: green or black growth along a crack, rust trails below a nail head, mortar that has turned to sand, felt gone brittle, and old tide marks in the loft that pre-date the recent weather.
Why one event can show both
Real roofs are rarely tidy. A gale may take three tiles off a slope whose underlay was already tired. A report that records both facts, the fresh loss and the ageing beneath it, is more use to everyone than one pretending the roof was perfect. We say what is new, what is old, and which of the two let the water in.
It is also worth separating the roof from what it let in. Ceilings and contents damage can be a different heading on a claim, and the roofer's report deals with the cause rather than the redecorating.
Maintenance records help. Receipts for gutter clearing, an earlier repair, or photographs from the last time somebody was on the roof all show the covering was looked after. Our guide to roof photographs from a roofer explains what a good set looks like and how many views each fault needs.
What belongs in a roofer's report
A useful report is short, dated and specific. It does not need legal language. It needs to let a loss adjuster who has never seen your house picture the fault and judge it. These are the items we include.
- The date of the visit, the address, and how the roof was viewed: from a ladder, from the loft, from scaffolding or from above by drone.
- A numbered list of faults, each tied to a position, such as the left hip, the valley beside the chimney or the second verge from the road.
- Photographs for each fault: one wide enough to place it on the roof and one close enough to show the broken surface.
- The covering and its approximate age, where that can be seen.
- A plain statement of cause for each fault, written as an observation, for example "ridge tiles displaced, fixings pulled out of sound timber".
- A note of any older wear we saw nearby, good or bad.
- The temporary protection fitted, and the permanent repair the survey points to.
Loft evidence
The loft often settles the timeline. Staining on rafters, wet insulation and tide marks tell the story from the inside, so a visit upstairs belongs in any proper report. Our guide to checking your loft for roof problems sets out what we look for there.
You get a written quote after the survey, giving a single total. Your insurer may ask for an estimate as well, and the same survey photographs can sit beside it. Whether the insurer pays for the repair, or lets you choose your own roofer, depends on your policy.
A report is also only as good as the visit behind it, so we trace each fault to its start rather than listing only what is visible from the pavement. Slipped tiles can be a symptom of failed battens, and the report should say so when we find it.
Before any repair: what to do and in what order
Sequence matters more than many people expect. The sensible route is to tell your insurer about the damage first, then arrange a temporary repair so the loss does not grow, and ask whether they want to see it before anything is moved. That order suits roofs well: the insurer hears of the loss before the evidence changes.
Record it first
If it is safe, photograph the damage from the ground and from inside before anything moves. Include the whole elevation, not only the gap. Photograph fallen tiles, a toppled pot or a bent bracket where it landed. Keep whatever has come off the roof until the insurer says otherwise, because broken pieces can show whether a break was fresh.
Make it safe, then trace the cause
A leaking roof gets made safe first. That usually means covering the opening or refixing what has lifted, with the work photographed as it goes, so no further water enters and nothing is lost. Leaks and storm damage jump the queue with us, and the lasting repair comes once the cause is known. Tell your insurer what temporary work was done and by whom.
Do not agree a full replacement on the doorstep with someone who turns up uninvited after bad weather. A genuine report needs the cause traced first, and tracing is quiet, methodical work. If you are unsure whether the damage is recent, our guide to what counts as a storm for insurance covers how the term is used.
If the loss is bigger than a repair, ask the insurer what evidence it wants for a re-roof, and whether it plans to send its own assessor first.
If the insurer disagrees with the report
Insurers sometimes decide that damage was gradual, or that the roof was not in good order, even where a roofer's report says otherwise. A refusal is not the end. The Ombudsman sets out the route for consumers: complain to the insurer first, and if no final response comes within 8 weeks, or you are unhappy with the one you get, you can take it to the Ombudsman. You then have 6 months from the date on that final response, and the service is free.
Evidence is the strongest part of a complaint, and the roof is the main evidence. A report that separates old wear from fresh damage, with dated photographs, narrows the dispute. The Ombudsman's own questions read like a checklist for it: was there a qualifying storm, is the pattern one that gales produce, and whether the weather really was the dominant cause.
Keep a paper trail
Log each call to the insurer with its date, who answered and what was agreed. Keep emails and letters together, and send the report and photographs as one labelled batch.
Asking for a second look
If an insurer's assessor writes something that does not match what is on the roof, you can ask your roofer to look again and respond to the specific points. Be exact. Name the fault, quote what the assessor said and attach the photograph that shows otherwise. A calm, specific reply is easier to act on than a general objection.
The report ends at the roof: we give an opinion on cause, and the insurer or the Ombudsman decides what the policy wording does with it. The official storm damage guidance explains the process in the Ombudsman's own words.
Older buildings bring their own argument about age, because an insurer may point to the roof's years rather than the weather. See surveying a historic or listed roof for how a survey records period materials.
