Slipped slates and insurance
Does home insurance cover slipped slates?
The short answer
It depends on the policy and on why the slates slipped. Storm damage may be covered, while loss from wear and tear usually is not, and Which? counts a roof left to deteriorate, with rain coming in, as wear and tear. Ring your insurer early, make the roof safe, photograph what happened and keep the receipts for any stopgap work.
What to do when slates slip, how the cause shapes a claim, and where a roofer fits into the process.
A gale, or years of wear
A policy treats a one-off event and slow deterioration very differently. A gale that lifts slates off a sound roof is a different event from slates that loosened over several years and dropped in light weather. The wording of your policy decides what is covered, and only the insurer can say how it applies to your slating.
In an article dated 20 November 2025, Which? gives the example of damp entering through a roof that has been left to decline, something an insurer can class as ordinary wear. Of the storm claims made in 2024, it adds, only 32 per cent ended in a payout, so nobody can promise that yours will go through. The lesson is that regular upkeep protects you twice: it keeps the roof sound, and it puts you on firmer ground if a storm does strike. Our guide to slate roof storm damage describes what a gale does to slating, and why the damage usually starts at the exposed edges.
Your first moves when slates have come off
Safety comes first. Stay out from under the damaged section and leave the climbing to a professional. Which? suggests a call to the insurer at the earliest chance, pointing out that many run emergency lines around the clock. Should you have to organise an urgent fix yourself, tell the insurer what you have done and keep each receipt, as the spending may form part of the claim. If something is broken, leave it where it lies when that is safe, so the insurer can look at it.
The Institution of Structural Engineers, in guidance from 28 January 2025, treats photographs of the affected areas as essential proof, and includes temporary coverings in the urgent work worth reporting. Put together, that gives an order of play: secure the area, ring the insurer, take pictures, and file the paperwork for any stopgap. Our answer on calling a roofer or your insurer first walks through the same sequence in more detail.
What a roofer can do, and what stays with the insurer
A roofer can stop the water, record the damage and repair it. Leaks and storm damage are the work we put first; the opening job is always making the roof safe. On slating that might mean a temporary sheet over the open area, or pinning back a run of slipped slates so the next shower stays outside. Every fault is photographed before we touch it, which leaves you holding a record to show the insurer.
Deciding the claim is not a roofer's job. That rests between you and your policy provider. Nobody can promise an outcome, and a caller at the door who says a new roof will be paid for is selling something. If the provider wants a report, ours can set out what we found and what putting it right involves. The cost reaches you in a document after the visit, stated as one total, so you know it whatever the decision, and you can set the two side by side before any permanent work begins.
Slates that slip in calm weather
Slates sliding off in still weather point to something else. The fixings may have failed, the battens may have rotted, or the stone may be delaminating. Our guide to slipped slates explains the causes. Insurers tend to ask when the roof was last checked, so records of upkeep, cleared gutters and earlier repairs all count in your favour.
If age is the cause, a claim is an unlikely route, and the choice becomes repair against re-slating. We look at the whole slope and not only the gap, then give a plain verdict. A run of slipped slates may be a patch for now, or a sign the fixings are going across the roof. Our page on slate roofing sets out how we repair and renew slating, and the verdict always rests on the photographs taken on the day. Keep any invoices from that visit with your policy papers, because they show the roof was being looked after.
If the answer from the insurer disappoints you
Suppose the claim is turned down, or pays less than you expected. Which? says to raise the complaint with the insurer, and only then go to the Financial Ombudsman Service, which is free to use. Keep your photographs, receipts and letters together, because they are the evidence a complaint is built on.
It also helps to know where a claim stops. A temporary repair that holds the water back is a sensible step, and the provider will usually want to hear about it, but permanent work is best agreed before it starts. Ask them in writing what they need from a contractor, such as a report, photographs or an invoice in a particular form. A tidy paper trail from the first day makes every later conversation easier, whatever the decision turns out to be, and it spares you from piecing events together months afterwards.
Related questions
Storm claim questions
Should I repair slipped slates before the insurer has looked?
Secure the roof and keep the rain out if you can, but photograph everything first and tell your insurer before permanent work. Which? says to keep receipts for emergency repairs. Ask the insurer what they want to see before any slates are taken away.
Can you give me a report to go with my claim?
We can describe what we found, with photographs of each slipped slate and the roof around it, and what the repair involves. The decision is the insurer's, and the report records the roof as it was when we saw it.