Storm Damage to Your Roof: What to Do (and What Not to Do)

A storm comes through overnight. In the morning you find tiles in the garden, a damp patch on the bedroom ceiling, or both. The instinct to do something immediately is entirely understandable — but the next 30 minutes of decisions can significantly affect both the damage to your property and your insurance position. Here is a straightforward guide to the correct sequence of actions.

Step 1: Do Not Go on the Roof

This is the most important instruction in this entire guide. After storm damage, a roof surface that looked stable may have compromised fixings, saturated boarding, or displaced tiles that shift under foot pressure. Falls from roofs cause serious injuries every year in the UK, predominantly from DIY inspection attempts in the immediate aftermath of storm damage. The roof can wait 30 minutes for a professional. Your safety cannot.

Inspect from ground level only. Step back from the building and look at the roofline from a safe distance. Use binoculars if you have them. Look for missing or displaced tiles, lifted ridge tiles, displaced lead flashings or visible daylight through the roof surface.

Step 2: Check Inside the Property

Go into your loft space if you have safe access. Look for:

• Daylight visible through the roof surface (indicates displaced tiles or felt failure)
• Active water ingress — dripping or running water
• Wet insulation or damp boarding
• Any structural movement or cracking in the roof structure

If you find active water ingress, place buckets and protect any stored items or electrical equipment below. Do not attempt to apply any repair from inside the loft — this is not effective and puts you in a hazardous position.

Step 3: Call Your Insurer Before Calling Anyone Else

If the damage is significant, contact your home insurer before instructing a roofer for permanent repairs. Most home insurance policies cover storm damage to roofs, but the claims process requires that you notify the insurer promptly and that you do not carry out permanent repairs until the insurer has assessed the damage (or waived their right to do so).

Temporary emergency weatherproofing — a tarpaulin, temporary lead, emergency mortar — to prevent further water ingress is generally covered as a necessary immediate action and should not affect your claim. Permanent tile replacement or re-roofing before the insurer has approved the claim can complicate or invalidate it.

When you call your insurer, note the following for the claims handler:

• Date and approximate time the storm occurred
• What you can see from ground level
• Whether there is active water ingress
• Any emergency action you have taken or intend to take

Step 4: Call a Roofer for Emergency Assessment and Temporary Protection

Once you have notified your insurer (or if the damage is minor enough that you're not making a claim), call a roofer for an emergency attendance. A competent emergency response involves:

1. Safe access to the roof using appropriate equipment
2. Removal of any loose materials that present a falling hazard
3. Application of temporary weatherproofing to prevent further water ingress
4. A written assessment of the damage with photographs, suitable for submission to your insurer
5. A written quote for permanent repair

We provide all of the above on every emergency attendance. The written assessment with photographs is something your insurer will likely require, and it is in your interest to have it produced by the attending roofer at the time of the visit rather than retrospectively.

What Not to Do

• Don't go on the roof yourself. Already covered, but worth repeating.
• Don't use an unverified emergency roofer who knocks on your door. Post-storm, the number of unqualified or fraudulent roofers offering 'storm damage inspection' increases sharply. They target properties with visible damage. They frequently charge for work not done or do work that fails quickly. Use a roofer you can verify — NFRC registration, verifiable reviews, a landline or local number.
• Don't instruct permanent repairs before your insurer has assessed or approved. See Step 3.
• Don't leave active water ingress unaddressed overnight if you can avoid it. Water tracking through a roof structure damages insulation, boarding, ceiling joists and ceiling plasterwork in that order, and the cost of secondary damage can exceed the roof repair itself.

Storm Damage in Kent: What We See Most Often

Across our coverage area, the post-storm calls we receive most frequently are:

• Ridge tile loss on exposed properties — particularly cliff-top and Leas properties in Folkestone, elevated North Downs properties around Charing, and open farmland-edge properties across the Weald
• Tile displacement on Ashford's post-war estates (Bockhanger, Stanhope, Kingsnorth) where nail sickness means borderline tiles need only a moderate gust to become airborne
• Lead flashing displacement on Victorian terraces in Ashford's Newtown area, Canterbury's inner suburbs and Folkestone's seafront streets
• Flat roof uplift on domestic extensions where the edge trim or upstand detail has deteriorated — in high winds, a compromised edge can allow wind to get under the roofing membrane