What does commercial property insurance expect of the roof?

What an insurer is really asking about

When water comes through a commercial roof, the insurer's first question is why. Policies pay for sudden events such as storm damage, but many exclude slow deterioration, and a leak through a neglected roof is often treated as a maintenance failure rather than an insured event. Consumer reporting from Which? notes that standard policies may refuse damage blamed on general wear, with a poorly maintained roof given as one example.

So the practical question is less whether you hold a policy and more whether you can show the roof has had attention. That is a matter of records. An owner with three years of dated reports and invoices stands in a different position from one who cannot say when anybody last climbed up.

The same logic applies to a tenant on a repairing lease, who may be responsible for the roof and who may be asked by the landlord to prove it. Our page on commercial lease roof repairs covers that side of things.

Storm cover and the 55 mph question

Plenty of insurers lean on the Association of British Insurers idea of a storm, which starts at gusts of 55 mph. If the wind that took your sheets off was milder than that, the insurer may suggest the roof was already weak. That is one reason why a roofer's report on the condition of the covering before the event carries real weight.

Complaints about refused storm claims can end up with the Financial Ombudsman Service, which has published a worked example. There the investigator weighed regional weather records rather than demanding one gust figure, concluded that wind had dislodged the tiles, and noted that the policy's wear clause covered accidental damage only. A single decision predicts nothing about yours. It does show that the quality of the evidence changes results, and that a roofer's dated observations are part of that evidence.

Which?, citing FCA data, reported that only 32% of storm-related claims made in 2024 ended in a payout. That statistic comes from household policies, not commercial ones, so treat it as a reason to keep good evidence, not a forecast for your building.

The records that help

A useful roof file is short and dated. It need not be elaborate, but it does need to exist before the problem does.

• Inspection reports. A written note after each visit, with photographs, covering the state of the covering, laps, outlets and flashings.
• Repair invoices. Each repair described by location and cause, so that a reader years later can see a pattern.
• Clearance records. The dates on which gutters, valleys and outlets were cleared of debris.
• Specification and warranty papers. The original build-up, any manufacturer paperwork and, where we did the work, our written workmanship guarantee.
• Seasonal photographs. One set at the start of winter and another after any serious storm.

Insurers also tend to ask what changed between the last good inspection and the loss, so a gap of several years in the file invites awkward questions. Landlords and managing agents often hold the paperwork for a multi-let building, and it is worth asking them for it now rather than during a claim. Keep copies away from the building, on a shared drive or with your managing agent, in the cloud or at a head office, so a fire or flood does not take the evidence with the property. A planned programme of visits is described on our commercial roof maintenance page.

After damage: the first steps

If a storm has hurt your roof, limit the harm before anything else. Policies often require reasonable steps to protect the property, and some spell that out. Sheeting over an opening and diverting water counts, and the receipt is worth keeping. Our own order of work is to make a leaking roof safe, then look for the cause, and we prioritise leaks and storm damage over routine jobs.

Before debris is cleared or repairs are made permanent, photograph the damage with the date visible, from ground level and from the roof where that can be done safely. Hold on to broken materials where practical. Then tell the insurer promptly and read the wording on how and when to report. The insurer may want a loss adjuster to see the damage first, and starting permanent work too early can complicate matters.

We can inspect, photograph and describe the likely cause in a written report. Making or settling the claim is your business and your insurer's. Whether it is paid is the insurer's decision, and if you disagree with the outcome the Financial Ombudsman Service is the next stop.

Insurance, regulations and the work itself

Insurance also interacts with the rules on what needs approval. If part of a re-roof is notifiable and building control has never been told, that can cause trouble later when the building is sold, let or re-insured. The question of whether a commercial re-roof needs Building Regulations approval has its own answer page.

When a leak is the issue, it helps to understand the usual entry points before speaking to the insurer, because they affect whether the cause looks like weather or like wear. The industrial roof leak page runs through them.

To build a dated, photographed record of your roof, book a survey. The visit costs nothing, you get the findings with photographs, and the price you are quoted afterwards is fixed. Other business services are listed under commercial roofing.