The short answer
Home insurance may cover chimney damage caused by an insured event such as a storm or lightning, but it normally excludes wear and tear, gradual deterioration and poor maintenance. A stack blown over in a gale could be a claim, while eroded pointing or a perished flashing is maintenance. Check your policy wording, take photographs, and ask your insurer, because cover differs between policies and no claim is certain to succeed.
The line insurers draw: sudden damage versus wear
Home insurance is built to cover events, not ageing. A policy is written around insured perils such as storm, lightning, fire and impact, and it pays when one of them causes damage. It is not a maintenance plan, and it does not pay to replace parts that have simply worn out.
Chimneys sit awkwardly on that line. A stack takes weather on all sides for decades, so a great deal of the damage that shows up on one is gradual: pointing that has eroded over years, lead that has fatigued, flaunching that has cracked with frost. Insurers class that as wear and tear, and standard policies commonly exclude it. Which? notes that a standard policy can exclude gradual deterioration, such as rain entering a roof that was not kept in repair.
Where a single event brought the damage on, the picture changes. A stack that falls in a gale, a pot dislodged by a lightning strike or tiles and masonry thrown off by a fallen branch are the kinds of event a policy exists for.
Storm damage: what counts
Many insurers define a storm in their policy wording, and a common definition used across the industry includes gusts of at least 55 mph. Your own policy may state it differently, so read the definition of storm in your schedule rather than assuming.
The claim still has to link the damage to the storm. If a stack comes down in a named storm and the pointing was sound the week before, that is a straightforward story. If the stack was already leaning and cracked, the insurer may argue that the storm only finished off an existing failure, which is a wear-and-tear argument.
Not every storm claim is paid. Citing Financial Conduct Authority figures, Which? reported in November 2025 that only 32% of storm-related claims made in 2024 resulted in a payout. Do not let that put you off a genuine claim; let it push you to record everything. One Financial Ombudsman decision turned on local weather reports instead of a measured gust speed, and the ombudsman concluded that wind had lifted the tiles. If a claim is refused, you can complain to your insurer and then to the Financial Ombudsman Service at financial-ombudsman.org.uk.
Lightning, impact and other single events
A lightning strike can crack a pot, scorch the flaunching and shake mortar from the joints of the stack. The damage can look similar to age, which is why a roofer's report that describes what has happened and why helps. The same holds for impact: a branch or a slipped scaffold pole that knocks a stack leaves marks that point to a single event.
Subsidence and structural movement are treated differently, and policies handle them under their own terms. If a stack has started to lean, the cause may be movement in the masonry or the roof structure rather than a single event. Our page on the leaning chimney sets out what we look for.
Whatever the cause, make the stack safe first. A loose stack over a footpath or a bedroom is a danger. Storm damage gets priority from us, and the first step is making things safe; a temporary repair keeps further damage out while you deal with the insurer.
How to make a claim stronger
Start with photographs, taken once it is safe to go near it and before anything is moved or repaired. Show the stack, the roof around it, any fallen masonry in the garden and the damage inside. Note the date, the weather and what you saw or heard.
Keep the evidence. If bricks, a pot or a section of flaunching has come down, do not throw it away until the insurer has seen it or agreed. A roofer's written report describing the cause is useful because it is independent of the claim and records what an expert found when the damage was fresh.
Tell the insurer promptly, and check whether your policy has an excess, which is the part of each claim you pay yourself. For a small repair, the excess can swallow the whole claim. That is worth knowing before you decide whether a claim is worth making, since a claim can also affect future premiums.
We can survey and photograph the damage for you and set out what we find. We do not make claims on your behalf, and we cannot say whether an insurer will pay, because that decision is theirs.
When it is maintenance and you pay
Most chimney work is maintenance. Repointing, renewing lead flashings, re-laying flaunching and replacing a cracked pot are all things a stack needs as it ages, and insurers generally expect the owner to keep up with them. Cover can also be affected if damage follows a known fault left unrepaired.
There is a practical link between maintenance and insurance. A stack in good order is far less likely to fail in a storm, and a documented history of repairs shows that you looked after it. The interval is covered in how often to repoint a chimney, and condition rather than a calendar is the real test.
For budgeting, MyBuilder's chimney repair guide gives typical UK ranges for 2026: repair at £500 to £2,000, repointing averaging about £750 and a flashing repair at £250 to £1,200. These are not Empire prices. Once we have surveyed, the price you receive is fixed and written.
If the stack is past repair or being removed
Sometimes a damaged stack cannot be saved and the discussion moves to a rebuild. The costs of rebuilding can be considerable, typically £2,000 to £10,000 or more, and your insurer may agree to fund a rebuild after a covered event. Ask how they want it done and whether they require a specific scope; listed houses and conservation areas bring extra rules, so see chimney rebuild for how it works.
If you decide to remove the stack rather than rebuild it, tell the insurer before work starts, since removing it changes what the policy covers. Our answer on Building Regulations for removal explains what that involves.
For the full picture of what we do on stacks, see our chimney repairs page.
