The short answer
Get everyone out of the rooms under the damage, and ring 999 if anyone is hurt. Do not go under the tree or try to move it. Then tell your insurer, report an unsafe structure to Somerset Building Control if the house looks at risk, and arrange for a tree surgeon to deal with the tree before a roofer makes the roof safe. Photograph everything first.
A fallen tree can hide structural damage, so the order matters: safety, insurer, tree surgeon, then the roofer.
First, get everyone to safety
Leave any room beneath the damage, and keep people and pets out. A tree can rest on the rafters and on walls that have been weakened, and it may shift. Do not stand under it, try to cut it, or pull it off. Branches under tension can spring back, and the roof underneath may be supporting the tree's weight.
What if someone is hurt or the house is unsafe?
Ring 999 for any injury. If the damage looks structural, with a sagging roof, cracked walls, a leaning chimney or a ceiling bowing downward, treat the house as unsafe and leave it. Switch off the electricity at the fuse board if you can get to it safely, because a tree can bring down cables and break wiring in the loft. If there are overhead power lines down, stay well away and call your network operator.
Gas smells also mean leaving the house and calling for help from outside. Once everyone is out and safe, look at what is happening from the garden or the road. Do not go back in for belongings unless the roof is stable and you have been told it is safe.
Telling the insurer and the council
Tell your home insurer before anything else is arranged, because the policy sets out what is covered, what repairs can be made and who should be called. Then arrange a temporary repair, keeping photographs and receipts. IStructE stresses that photographs are vital evidence, so take them before anything is moved.
Who do I tell if the house looks dangerous?
Somerset Building Control deals with dangerous structures, and a house with a tree through the roof may qualify. Whoever owns a dangerous building has to pay to make it safe. The number is 0300 303 7790.
Nobody can promise that an insurer will pay. Which? found that only 32 per cent of claims made for storm damage in 2024 ended in a payout, so describe the damage fully, and if a claim is refused, ask for the reasons in writing. The Financial Ombudsman Service takes complaints about insurers. Our answer on home insurance and a leaking roof goes through the process.
The tree surgeon comes before the roofer
The tree usually has to come off before the roof can be repaired. A tree surgeon has the training and equipment to cut it in sections and lower the pieces without dropping them onto the damage. A roofer cannot make the roof safe while a trunk is still lying on it.
Why not just get the roofer to start?
A tree resting on a roof is holding up some of the structure, and the roof is holding up some of the tree. Cut the wrong branch and the load can shift, causing a collapse. Let the tree surgeon decide the order of the cuts, and ask them to leave the roof as it is, so the damage can be assessed.
Our work comes straight after. We make the roof safe, which usually means a temporary cover over the opening, and then survey the damage to the covering, the battens, the timbers and the underlay beneath them. In some cases a structural engineer is needed to check that rafters and walls are sound before the repair is planned.
If you are not sure which of us to call first, call the insurer, as it may have approved contractors, and ask them what they need. Then tell the roofer what has been arranged.
Making the roof safe and planning the repair
With the tree gone, the roof can be assessed properly. The first visit is a make-safe, which stops rain getting in, and the final repair is scheduled when it is clear how far the damage extends.
What does the repair involve?
It can range from replacing a few broken tiles and a damaged ridge to rebuilding a section of roof, with new rafters, battens, underlay and covering. Matching the existing roof matters, particularly on older slate or clay. For a listed house or a home in a conservation area, check with Somerset Council's planning team about consent before changing materials. Our page on emergency repairs on a listed building explains the route.
Access may call for a scaffold. Scaffold on the highway needs a highway authority licence, which we line up with the scaffolder. Allow for that when you plan the dates.
Photographs taken from the ground, with the date of the fall, are enough to start. Once the site is safe, the survey photographs your roof and ends in a written total for the repair. Our emergency roof repairs page sets out the steps.
More on a fallen tree
Can I stay in the house if the tree only hit the garage end?
It depends on whether the damage is structural and whether the wall shared with the house is sound. Keep out of any room joined to the damaged part until it has been checked. If you see cracks, sagging or a leaning chimney, leave and report it to the building control team.
Who pays for removing the tree?
That depends on whose tree it was and what your policy says. Policies differ on whether they cover removal when a tree damages the building, so ask the insurer before the tree surgeon starts. If it came from a neighbour's land, take photographs and tell your insurer about that too.
The full picture: Emergency and general roof repairs in Taunton ยท More short answers