New roof and insurance
Will insurance pay for a new roof?
The short answer
Insurance can contribute towards a new roof only where a one-off event, such as a gale, has damaged it and your policy covers that event. It is not built to replace a roof that has aged or been neglected, which insurers class as wear and tear. Payment turns on your policy wording and the insurer's own assessment, so nothing here is a promise of a payout.
How insurers separate storm damage from age, what to do once damage has happened, and what your options are when a claim does not apply.
One-off damage is covered, slow decay is not
An insurer begins with one question: why did the roof fail? A gale that strips a slope of tiles is an event. Tiles that crumbled because the house was built long ago and nobody ever looked at the roof are a condition, and policies are drafted to leave conditions out.
Which? gives the clearest illustration. Water that enters through a roof nobody has maintained is filed by insurers under wear and tear, with storm damage left out of the picture. That article also cites Financial Conduct Authority data: just 32% of storm-related claims in 2024 ended in a payout. It is better to read your policy before the weather turns than after it.
A well-kept roof hit by a named event therefore stands in a very different position from a tired roof that finally lets the water in. Neither outcome is certain, because the insurer decides, working from the policy and its view of the damage. Our job is only to show you the roof as it is.
The first steps after the damage
Safety comes ahead of paperwork. If a chimney, a gable or a slope looks unstable, keep people clear of it. The Institution of Structural Engineers says the building control team at your local authority is the place to report a structure that looks dangerous.
Next, contact your insurer as early as you can; Which? observes that most insurers staff an emergency helpline. If you book an urgent repair yourself, tell the insurer what you are doing and save the receipts, because they support the claim later. Hold on to damaged items too, unless handling them is a hazard.
The same engineers' body calls photographs vital evidence, and suggests logging any temporary coverings put up to keep the water out. Our own order of work is to stop the water first, with a make-safe if one is needed, then take survey photographs of each fault, which accompany the written quote. The order of calls is set out in our answer on ringing a roofer or your insurer first.
Repairs, patches and whole roofs
Even where a claim is accepted, the sum paid is normally tied to the harm the event did. A storm that lifts a few courses of tiles points towards putting those courses right. It does not by itself prove the entire roof must come off, and an insurer may well ask why you want more than that.
This is where a plain verdict helps. We survey the roof, photograph each defect and give a verdict of repair, patch for now or replace, recommending whichever is the least work that properly cures the fault. If a roof is past economic repair, the pictures show why, and you can pass them on to the insurer. If a repair will hold, you hear that instead.
Your policy wording, not our opinion, decides what is paid. Study the section on storm and weather damage, and look up the excess before committing to any work, so there are no surprises when the cheque, or the refusal, arrives. Ask the insurer, too, whether it wants to send its own assessor before anything is taken down or thrown away.
Planning the spend when no claim applies
For an ageing roof with no single event behind it, the money comes from your own pocket. Checkatrade's roof replacement guide gives an average of around £8,000, with most UK jobs between £4,000 and £19,000, so it pays to know early where your roof is heading. Our guide to roof replacement costs explains what moves that number.
Nothing at national level pays for re-roofing. England's grants fund insulation and heating, not the covering above them, and our answer on government grants for a new roof shows what is open and what has ended.
A survey that catches faults early lets you spread the work: repairs now, and the replacement at a time you choose rather than one a storm picks for you. Setting a little aside each year for the roof is dull advice, but it is the plan that works when no insurer is going to pay.
After a refusal
A refusal need not be the end of it. Read the reason in writing, then ask the insurer which clause it relied on. If you think the decision is unfair, complain to the insurer first. Which? says that if you are still unhappy afterwards, you can take your case to the Financial Ombudsman Service, which costs nothing to use.
Gather your evidence before you write. Dated pictures taken before and after the damage, receipts for any temporary work and a short written account of events all carry weight. A roofer's written survey may also help, although the insurer will set it beside its own assessor's view.
More on the paperwork and on how insurers think is in our guide to making a roof insurance claim. The answer on insurance for roof repairs covers smaller jobs, and the main page for this work is roof replacement and new roofs.
Related questions
Roof and insurance queries
Do I need a roofer's quote before I phone my insurer?
No. Phone the insurer first, as Which? advises, and tell it about any emergency repair you arrange. A written quote is useful later, when the insurer asks what the work will cost, but it should not delay that first call.
Does buildings insurance cover a roof that leaks in heavy rain?
It depends on the cause. Rain coming through a neglected roof lands on the wear-and-tear side of the line, while rain entering after a storm tore a covering off is a different matter. The policy wording and the insurer's assessment decide the outcome.