Storm damage to your roof is covered by standard buildings insurance, with insurers generally treating wind speeds around 55mph or above as a storm. Photograph everything before repairs, obtain Met Office data for the date, and make the property safe but avoid permanent work until the insurer has inspected.
East Yorkshire's Humber gales cause roof damage every winter. When your roof is hit — displaced tiles, a lifted ridge section, a flat roof torn back — knowing how to handle the insurance claim correctly can be the difference between a full payout and a long dispute.
What Storm Damage Is Covered?
Standard buildings insurance covers sudden, unexpected damage caused by a storm. In practice: tiles displaced or broken by wind, ridge sections lifted, chimney pots blown down, guttering brought down by falling debris, and flat roof membranes torn by extreme weather. The damage must be a direct result of the storm — not gradual deterioration that the storm happened to worsen.
Important: If your roof had pre-existing problems — nail sickness, failed mortar, degraded felt — insurers may argue the storm didn't cause the damage, it merely accelerated existing failure. The best protection against a rejected claim is a roof in good condition before the event.
The Right Sequence After Storm Damage
The Financial Ombudsman Service applies a working benchmark of wind speeds around 55mph when assessing whether a storm occurred for insurance purposes.
Source: Financial Ombudsman Service, storm damage complaints guidance
Step 1: Make it safe. If there's structural concern — visible sagging, a chimney stack that has moved, a large area of tiles missing — call us for a same-day emergency assessment. Don't attempt to inspect the roof yourself.
Step 2: Document everything before repairs. Photograph all damage before we attend if safely possible. Collect displaced tiles. Note the date and time. The documentation you create in the first hour is your claim evidence.
Step 3: Notify your insurer before permanent repairs. Temporary weatherproofing is expected. Permanent repairs should wait for insurer confirmation unless delay causes greater damage.
Step 4: Get an independent written report. Our assessment report documents original damage, cause and repair needed — suitable for insurer submission and claim support.
What Insurers Mean by "Storm"
Most UK buildings policies do not define storm precisely, but the Financial Ombudsman Service applies a working benchmark that has become the industry reference: wind speeds of around 55 mph or more, or torrential rain, or heavy snow. This matters because a claim declined on the basis that "there was no storm" can be challenged with Met Office data for the nearest station.
For East Yorkshire, the relevant reference stations are Leconfield, just north of Beverley, and Bridlington on the coast. Historical observations are publicly available, and a printout showing recorded gusts on the date of damage is straightforward evidence to include with a claim. Where the recorded gust is below the benchmark, an insurer may still accept the claim if the damage is clearly weather-caused, but the burden shifts to you.
Wear and Tear: The Most Common Reason Claims Are Reduced
Every buildings policy excludes gradual deterioration, and this is where most roofing claims run into difficulty. If a storm removes tiles from a roof that was already nail-sick, the insurer's position is often that the storm merely revealed a pre-existing condition rather than causing the damage — and they may pay for the individual tiles while declining any wider remedy.
This is not necessarily the final word. The distinction the Ombudsman draws is whether the storm was the dominant cause of the damage. A roof in poor condition that would have failed anyway is a maintenance issue; a roof in ordinary age-appropriate condition that lost tiles because of exceptional wind is a storm claim, even if the roof was not new. Documented maintenance history — survey reports, dated repair invoices, photographs from before the event — is what tips this argument, and it is the single most valuable thing a homeowner can have on file.
Emergency Repairs and Mitigation Duty
Policies impose a duty to take reasonable steps to prevent further damage, and reasonable emergency work carried out before the insurer inspects is normally recoverable. The practical sequence is: make safe, photograph everything before and after, keep the invoice, and notify the insurer as soon as practical.
What you should not do is commission permanent repairs before the insurer has had the opportunity to inspect, on anything beyond a modest sum. A temporary weatherproof covering is mitigation; a full re-roof completed before notification removes the evidence and gives the insurer grounds to dispute both cause and scope. We routinely make properties safe across Beverley and Hull on the day and then hold the permanent repair until the claim position is clear.
Loss Adjusters, Scope Disputes and Getting a Fair Settlement
On larger claims the insurer appoints a loss adjuster to assess cause and scope. It is worth understanding that the adjuster acts for the insurer. You are entitled to have your own contractor present at the inspection, and on a contested claim that is usually worthwhile — the technical argument about whether adjacent tiles have been disturbed, or whether a matching tile is still available, is much easier to make in person than in correspondence afterwards.
Matching is a recurring issue in East Yorkshire. Where a discontinued tile or a period clay pantile cannot be sourced, a partial repair leaves a visibly mismatched patch. Many policies contain a matching-set or uniformity clause; where they do not, this is a negotiation, and evidence that matched reclaimed material is genuinely unobtainable strengthens the case for recovering a larger area.
Escalating a Declined Claim
If a claim is declined or underpaid, the route is: request the decision in writing with reasons; submit a formal complaint to the insurer, who has eight weeks to respond; then refer to the Financial Ombudsman Service, which is free and independent and can make binding awards. An independent surveyor's report obtained at your own cost is often decisive at the Ombudsman stage, particularly on the wear-and-tear question.
Keep the file tidy throughout: policy schedule, notification date, Met Office data, photographs with timestamps, contractor reports and quotations, and a dated log of every call. Claims are frequently won or lost on documentation rather than on the underlying merits, and the documentation is entirely within your control.
Neighbouring Property and Third-Party Damage
Storm damage frequently involves more than one property. Tiles blown from one roof onto a neighbour's car, a fence or a conservatory raise the question of liability, and the answer is often not what people assume. There is generally no automatic liability for damage caused by an act of nature — a homeowner is liable only where negligence can be shown, such as a known defect left unrepaired.
This is another reason documented maintenance matters. A homeowner with a recent survey and a record of addressing identified defects is well placed if a neighbour claims negligence; one whose roof has visibly been shedding tiles for two years is not. Where damage does occur across a boundary, the usual route is each party claiming on their own buildings or contents policy, and insurers pursuing recovery between themselves if they consider it warranted. Keeping the exchange with neighbours factual and letting the insurers handle liability is generally the least stressful approach.
Free survey, no call-out fee. Call 0148 290 8437 or book online.
Last reviewed: 22 July 2026 by Beverley Roofing Experts.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes — storm damage is a standard insured peril under most buildings policies. The key is that damage must be sudden and caused by the storm, not pre-existing deterioration that the storm worsened. Insurers will assess whether the roof was in reasonable condition before the event.
Policies don't always define 'storm' precisely, but typically it requires sustained wind speeds of 50mph+, heavy sustained rainfall, or hail. East Yorkshire Humber gales in autumn and winter frequently meet this threshold. Check the Met Office Storm Events database for your area on the date of damage — this data supports claims.
Photograph all damage from ground level and any safe internal vantage point before any repair. Photograph internal water damage to ceilings and walls. Keep displaced tiles or ridge sections as physical evidence. Note the date and time, and download the Met Office weather record for your postcode on that date.
Yes. If the loss adjuster finds widespread nail sickness, failed mortar or degraded felt, they may argue the storm didn't cause the damage — it revealed pre-existing failure. This is why maintaining your roof protects your insurance position, not just your structure.
Apply temporary weatherproofing to prevent further damage — insurers expect this. Do not carry out permanent repairs until the insurer has confirmed the claim will be accepted and inspected, unless delay would cause significantly greater structural damage. Keep receipts for all temporary works.
The most common reasons are: roof in demonstrably poor pre-existing condition (nail sickness, failed mortar), damage not meeting the insurer's storm threshold definition, inadequate pre-repair documentation, and attempting to claim gradual maintenance issues as storm damage.
Yes. We provide written storm damage reports that are dated, photographed and suitable for insurer submission. The report covers original damage found, probable cause, and the repair required. Call 0148 290 8437 to arrange an emergency assessment.