After a storm there are roof tiles across the yard, a stripped patch on the roof, a trampoline that's blown loose in the garden — and time, the rain and a sense of helplessness all seem to be pressing in at once. The good news: storm damage is the kind of claim where a handful of calm steps — safety, temporary cover, photos, reporting — sets up almost the entire claim. It all comes down to the order you do them in.
- Safety first: don't touch a fallen power line or an unstable structure — those are jobs for professionals and the emergency services.
- Temporary cover is damage mitigation, not erasing the evidence: photograph it first, and keep the receipts.
- Report it on the insurer's claims line or online portal — and leave the damaged debris in place until the inspection.
Safety first: everything else can wait
A fallen power line, a leaning chimney, roof tiles half slipped off, a tree resting on a cable: don't touch any of these — call the emergency services where there's a risk of electric shock or collapse, and call 112 for immediate danger to life. Don't climb onto a roof that's wet, slippery or damaged in high winds; if the height or the structure is at all uncertain, covering it is also a job for a professional. If a fallen tree or a downed line affects a public area, report it to the utility company or road authority as well — emergency services are stretched after major storms, and some waiting is unfortunately part of the situation. Every step of the claim can wait until the site is safe — the insurer expects nothing less.
Temporary cover: mitigation you're expected to do
If rain is pouring straight in, tarpaulin and temporary cover won't harm the claim — quite the opposite: policies typically make damage mitigation an obligation, and a leak prevented is better for you and for the insurer alike. The order is simply this: photograph the state of things, then cover it. Keep the receipts for materials and labour with the claim file — reasonable mitigation costs are typically allowed as part of the claim.
Photos, time stamps, and proving the storm happened
The documentation here has two purposes: recording the damage, and recording the storm itself. Take both a wide shot and close-ups of the damage — the roof from ground level, the damage close up, affected rooms from inside — ideally time-stamped. Local news, reports of damage in the area, and meteorological data can all help establish that the storm actually happened: a saved link or screenshot can be useful if the timing is ever in question later. Exactly what the policy terms mean by storm, hail or cloudburst is set out in detail in the storm and hail damage article — worth reading before you take out cover, too.
Reporting it — and what not to clear away before the inspection
Report the claim on the insurer's claims line or online claim-reporting portal, following the usual process: contract number, date, factual description, photos. Don't wait to report it until you've got the full picture together: the terms typically set a deadline of a few days, and after major storms there's a surge of reports — a claim number logged early makes every later step easier. Try not to have broken, damaged pieces — tiles, guttering, leaning structures — removed before the inspection: the loss adjuster may want to see them, and permanent repairs can then start with a clear conscience once the inspection is done. And the most useful step before the next storm is prevention: the pre-storm routine for gutters, fixings and the garden is the subject of the loss prevention article.
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