The short answer
Cover the opening and keep the rain out, but ring your insurer before ordering a permanent repair. Industry advice issued for Storm Eunice in 2022 allowed for temporary emergency repairs where necessary, with a call to the insurer first and receipts kept. Take your own pictures of the damage before any work begins, because a finished repair leaves nothing for an assessor to look at.
Why the order of events matters
An insurer wants to see what happened before it agrees what to pay for. If the damaged tiles have already been thrown in a skip and the roof relaid, there is nothing left for a loss adjuster to inspect and only your photographs to go on. That makes the claim harder to assess and gives the insurer more room to question the cause.
A policy may also set out how and when you must report damage, and what work you can commission without approval. Some ask you to get their agreement before spending above a set amount. Others name approved contractors. Reading those few paragraphs takes ten minutes and can save a refused invoice.
Policies differ in how they treat the cost of an emergency make-safe, so the wording on your own schedule is the only reliable guide. Expect questions about the day the damage appeared, and whether you knew of any earlier fault in the same area, so have those answers ready before you ring.
None of this means leaving a house open to the weather. Stopping damage from spreading is something insurers expect, and the point of the advice is simply to talk to them while you do it.
The same caution applies to a roofer who arrives unannounced and offers to start the full repair today. Nothing about a storm obliges you to sign up on the doorstep, and our page on ceilings that bulge with water shows how much can be done safely without committing to a larger job.
What counts as a temporary repair?
A temporary repair is anything that stops the building getting worse without changing it for good. Typical examples are sheeting a slope, boarding a hole, placing a few tiles back to close a gap, or clearing a blocked gutter that is sending water into a wall. Our page on a ceiling bulging with water covers the indoor side, where relieving the pressure safely comes first.
A permanent repair replaces what failed: new tiles, a rebuilt valley, a new flashing, a stripped and relaid slope. The sensible dividing line is whether the work removes the evidence. A temporary measure leaves the damaged area visible and recorded. A permanent one usually does not.
If you are unsure which category the work falls into, ask the insurer when you phone. A call handler would rather answer that question than deal with a dispute later.
Photographs before anyone starts
Before any make-safe, photograph the damage from the ground, the debris and the inside of the house. If a roofer is going up, ask them to take close pictures of the exposed timbers, the broken battens and the underlay, because those details disappear the moment the repair begins. Ask for the images to be sent to you the same day, with the date visible.
It also helps to keep a few of the damaged tiles or fittings, bagged and labelled, until the insurer says they can go. Our guide to the evidence for a roof insurance claim lists what else is worth gathering, including a weather record for the day.
Stay off the roof yourself. Pictures taken from a safe spot on the ground are enough for a first call.
When the damage cannot wait
Some situations do not allow a long wait for an assessor. A tree through the rafters, a slope open to heavy rain above a bedroom, or water running close to electrics means acting at once. Our page on a fallen tree on a roof sets out what is safe to do before help arrives.
In those cases, do the minimum that makes the property safe, document it as you go and call the insurer as early as you can. If the insurer cannot send anyone quickly, ask them to confirm in writing or by email what you may do in the meantime. Write down the time of the call and the first name of the adviser, along with any reference number they give you.
Spending a small amount on a make-safe that the policy later declines is a smaller problem than a ceiling collapse.
Receipts, invoices and the paperwork trail
Keep every receipt, as the Storm Eunice advice said. For emergency work, ask the roofer for an invoice that states the address, the date, what was done and why. If sheeting was fitted, the invoice should say where, so the insurer can see it was a temporary cover and not a roof renewal.
Whether the cost is repaid depends on the policy, the cause of the damage and the insurer's assessment, and no roofer can promise the outcome. Our companion page on what to do if a roof claim is rejected explains the next steps if the answer is no.
How we work alongside your claim
Claims are between you and your insurer, and no roofer can predict how yours will be decided. When you call us about a damaged roof, our first job is to make it safe, and we photograph what we find as we do it. Then we write up the fault and the work needed in our quote, which you can pass to your insurer if you wish.
If the insurer asks you to wait for its own inspection, we will not push you to start. We would rather the permanent work followed the right sequence, with the fault and the fix agreed on paper before a single tile is lifted. Our number is 01793 626096, and a message through WhatsApp or the website form reaches us too. For more, read the main emergency roof repairs page for how we approach leaks and storm damage. When the permanent repair is finished, we leave the site clear, remove the rubbish and put a 10-year workmanship guarantee on paper.