Does business insurance cover storm damage to a roof?

Before anything else, find out whose policy the roof sits under. On a freehold you own, it is your buildings cover. In a leased shop, unit or office, the lease usually says whether the landlord insures the structure and recharges the tenant, or the tenant insures it directly. A managing agent or a block's freeholder may hold the policy for a flat-roofed block, and the leaseholders pay through the service charge.

Getting this right saves days. A tenant who calls their own insurer about a roof the landlord insures loses time, and a landlord may need to hear about the damage before anyone starts work. Ask for the schedule and the full policy wording, not only the certificate, because the detail about storms, exclusions and excesses sits in the wording. Check the excess too, since a small repair may cost less than the excess and never be worth claiming, and note who has to sign off on any work before it starts.

Cover usually draws a line between a sudden event and a slow decline. Slates, sheets or membrane stripped from the building in a gale is a different situation from a roof that has dripped for months through worn seams. Which? offers a plain example of the second kind: rain reaching the rooms below by way of a badly maintained covering counts as wear and tear.

The practical consequence is that a roof with a record of inspection and upkeep is easier to defend than one nobody has examined for years. Dated survey photographs, maintenance visits and old repair invoices show the condition before the storm, and that is the evidence an insurer looks for first.

Your policy may also set conditions, such as a duty to keep the building in good repair. Read those clauses now, while nothing is wrong, and ask the insurer or your broker if any wording is unclear. A roofer cannot tell you whether a particular claim will succeed, and nobody at JJ Roofing will pretend otherwise.

Safety comes first. Keep people away from damaged areas, isolate electrics where water is coming through, and do not send anyone onto a roof in the wind. IStructE says a structure that looks dangerous can be reported to your council's building control team.

Then tell the insurer. Which? advises getting in touch with them as soon as you can, and if emergency repairs have to be arranged by you, telling them and keeping every receipt, because the cost forms part of the claim. Which? also says not to bin damaged items unless they put health at risk. IStructE adds that any temporary covering you fit goes in the report to the insurer, with photographs of the affected areas, since those pictures are vital evidence.

A temporary repair has one job: stopping more water coming in. On our side, leaks and storm damage go to the front of the queue, and the first visit is about getting the building dry and secure. The photographs we take there are yours to hand to the insurer. Our answer on calling a roofer or your insurer first covers the sequence for homes, and the logic carries over to a business.

A claim is built from paper. Open a folder the moment you notice damage and put everything in it.

• Dated photographs of the damage from the ground, from inside and, where it is safe to take them, from the roof itself.
• Receipts for any temporary repair or emergency call-out.
• Earlier survey reports, maintenance records and the date of the last recovering.
• The policy schedule, the excess and the date you first notified the insurer.
• Notes of every conversation: the person, the day and what was said.

Insurers may send their own assessor, and they may ask for a repair estimate before they agree to the work. A roofer's report that names the likely cause, with photographs, can help in that conversation, though the insurer makes the decision. If you disagree with the outcome, begin with a written complaint to the insurer and ask how its dispute process works. Keep copies of every letter and email you send or receive in the same folder.

Hold off on anything beyond emergency work until the insurer agrees, and ask whether it wants to inspect the damage before it is cleared away. Once the work is approved, the repair can be sized to the fault. When the damage is limited to one area, the answer is a patch or a section replacement. When the roof was already near the end of its working life, the discussion turns to repair or replacement, and that is a separate decision from the claim.

Ask the insurer whether the policy pays to reinstate what was there or allows an improvement, because any upgrade you choose beyond the original may be yours to fund. A commercial roof survey before the next winter, with photographs and a written report, leaves you with a record that makes any future claim simpler to present.

Our commercial roofing team can survey a damaged roof and set out the cause, the fix and the cost in writing.