Should you call a roofer or your insurer first?

Two jobs press at once: stopping more damage, and protecting your cover. Which? says storm damage should be reported to the insurer early, and notes that many insurers keep emergency helplines open. So ring them first, describe what happened and ask what they expect before any work begins.

That call costs nothing and shapes everything after it. The insurer may have its own repairers, may want photographs, or may send someone to inspect. Whichever applies, the roof still has to be made safe in the meantime, because rain does not wait for paperwork. Keep the call brief, jot down the time, your contact's name and any reference given, and then turn to protecting the house. Those notes become part of your record if the claim is questioned later. If nobody answers, do not wait on hold with water coming in: protect the house, record the attempt and try again when the emergency has passed.

The Institution of Structural Engineers' storm advice starts with safety. Keep people clear of anything that looks unstable, and report a dangerous structure to the local authority's building control team. Where you can do so without risk, shift belongings and catch drips. Its advice also stresses pictures: they give the insurer visual evidence of what the weather did.

Which? adds a rule of thumb for paying out yourself. If you book emergency repairs, tell the insurer and file the receipts, as that outlay can count towards the claim, and avoid binning damaged items unless they threaten health. A temporary covering fitted over a hole by a roofer is just the sort of urgent step an insurer expects to hear about. Take photographs before and after it goes on. Photograph each affected room as well as the roof, wide shots first and close ones after, so the pictures show both the scale of the damage and the detail.

Policies are written around sudden events, not slow decline. Which? gives one example of what gets left out: water coming in via a badly kept roof counts as wear and tear. A Financial Conduct Authority finding is quoted too: in 2024 only 32 per cent of storm claims ended in a payout. If the cause is unclear, a roofer's report on the age and condition of the covering can help show whether the damage was sudden.

None of this means you should hold back from claiming. It means a policy cannot stand in for upkeep, and that no roofer or adviser can promise what a claim will pay. A roof with moss in the valleys, tiles slipped since last winter and sagging felt is difficult to describe as a sudden loss. Dated pictures from before the weather hit, where you have them, help your case, and so does a record of past repairs.

Ring a roofer first when the roof has been left exposed and nothing else will do: a patch of covering blown off, a chimney knocked about, or water running through a ceiling. A roofer can make the roof safe, cover the opening and record what is damaged. We treat rain coming in as urgent, and the opening visit is about making the roof safe. Tell the insurer about any temporary work as soon as you can, even if the main repair waits for their decision. Phone us, then follow up with your insurer, armed with the pictures.

You may also have no policy that covers the roof, or an excess bigger than the repair. In either case a roofer is the quickest route. Our emergency roof repairs page explains how a make-safe visit works, and the wider job sits under roof repairs. Whatever your cover, never go up on a wet roof yourself to see how bad it looks.

An insurer will usually want the date and cause of the damage, photographs of the roof and of the rooms affected, receipts for any emergency work and a quote for the repair. From us you receive survey photographs and a written quote ending in one total, and you pass them on yourself. The claim, and the decision on it, stay between you and your insurer. If the insurer sends its own inspector, tell us before work begins so the records on both sides match.

Keep everything in one folder, including the reference from your first call. Our answer on home insurance and roof repair goes into what policies tend to include, and the page on roof repair photos describes a useful set of photographs. If you want a feel for the cost before speaking to anyone, start with repair cost per square metre.