Will Home Insurance Pay for a New Roof?

A home policy is built to respond to events: a gale that strips tiles, a fallen tree, a burst tank. Financial Ombudsman Service guidance treats a storm as violent wind, typically bringing rain, hail or snow with it. A roof that is merely old, with slipping tiles, failing battens or a worn-out covering, is a maintenance matter. Check whether your policy sets upkeep and gradual deterioration apart from sudden damage.

Can you claim a new roof on house insurance?

Only if the whole roof was damaged by an event the policy covers, and even then the insurer may repair what was damaged rather than replace the lot. Read the policy wording for the exclusions on wear and tear and maintenance, and for any excess, before you assume anything. The wording decides what is covered, and a roofer cannot override it.

A roofer can name the fault and photograph it. What the insurer does with that evidence is its decision. Our roof replacement hub explains the work if a replacement does turn out to be needed.

The order matters. Pick up the phone to your insurer before any repair work starts. Then keep the weather out for now: a tarpaulin, sheeting, or a few replacement tiles over the worst gap. A tradesperson can do this safely from scaffold or a ladder, which beats climbing up yourself in a gale.

What proof should I keep?

IStructE stresses that photographs are the strongest record of what happened. Take them before anything is moved, from the garden and from the loft hatch, and date them. Keep every receipt for temporary work, plus the name of whoever carried it out.

On any visit, stopping the leak and securing the roof come before anything else, because water inside a house keeps doing damage while paperwork is sorted out. The survey that follows brings back pictures of the damage plus one total, on paper, for the repair, ready to hand to your insurer beside your own. Our emergency and general roof repairs page explains how that works.

Do not throw broken tiles away until the insurer has said it does not need to see them, since they show what the wind actually did.

Should anything look unsafe, such as a ridge slipping or a chimney leaning, stay clear of the ground beneath it. Somerset Building Control treats slipping tiles and a shaky stack as dangerous-structure matters, and the bill for securing such a building falls on the owner.

Which? is blunt about it. It reports that only 32% of storm-related claims made in 2024 resulted in a payout. The reasons vary: the damage may not meet the storm definition in the policy, the roof may already have been in poor condition, or the insurer may have put the cause down to age and not weather.

Does a claim affect my premium?

That depends on your insurer, so ask before deciding to claim. For a small repair, set the bill beside next year's premium. MyJobQuote gives around £650 as an average roof repair, £150 to £300 for a call-out and £1,200 or more for storm repairs (Oct 2026), which helps you judge that balance.

An honest survey helps here. If the roof has failed through age, you are told so and shown the evidence, rather than encouraged to claim for something the policy will not cover. If storm damage is the cause, the photographs we take give you a record to attach.

Compare costs with what a new roof costs in the UK before deciding.

You are not stuck. Open by asking the insurer for its reasons on paper, naming the policy clause. Then follow its complaints procedure. The Financial Ombudsman Service can step in once a final response letter arrives, or after an eight-week wait for one, and a final response gives you 6 months to bring the complaint.

Is the Ombudsman free to use?

The Ombudsman calls its service free and straightforward. Send it your policy, the insurer's letters, your photographs and the written price for the repair. The Ombudsman decides whether the insurer acted fairly, and nobody can promise you the result.

Are there grants for a roof instead?

Roof replacement has no national grant behind it. Schemes that exist cover things such as insulation, and their rules and dates change, so check GOV.UK before relying on one.

A roof beyond repair is a decision about money and timing. Read how long a roof should last, then ask us for a survey and photographs of your own roof.