The short answer
A garage or outbuilding is often listed within buildings cover, but policies differ on limits, age of the structure and what counts as damage. Storm damage may be covered, whereas gradual wear and tear commonly is not. Read your policy wording, then ask your insurer before any repair, because cover cannot be promised in advance and we do not handle claims.
Where a garage sits in a home policy
Home insurance is usually split into buildings cover and contents cover. Buildings cover protects the structure of the house, and many policies extend it to permanent outbuildings in the garden: a detached or integral garage, a greenhouse of fixed construction, sometimes a shed. Others list outbuildings separately, set a lower limit for them, or ask you to name each one in the schedule.
So begin with the schedule and the policy booklet, and do not rely on guesswork. Look for the words outbuildings, detached garage and any condition about how the building was made. A policy might treat a brick garage with a tiled roof differently from a lightweight timber or sheet-metal structure, or put a limit on a flat roof of a certain age.
Contents cover is a separate question. Tools, a bike or a freezer kept in the garage sit under contents, and some insurers cap what is covered outside the main house. If you store anything valuable in there, check that limit too. Garages used as workshops or for business may fall outside a home policy altogether.
Storm damage against wear and tear
This is where garage roofs most often go wrong. A felt covering that has simply aged out, a sheet cracked by years of weather or a corroded fixing is wear and tear, and standard policies may not cover it. Which? gives the example of rain getting in through a roof nobody has looked after. A genuine storm that tears off a sheet or lifts a flat roof edge is a different matter, and may be covered if it meets the policy definition.
The Financial Ombudsman Service sets out how it reads a storm complaint. It looks for a storm on the day in question, damage of the kind storms usually cause, and a storm that was the main reason for the loss rather than one the roof would have failed under anyway. Where an owner already knew the garage roof had deteriorated, or the weather merely exposed a defect that pre-dated it, the ombudsman is unlikely to side with the owner.
Which? also reports that many insurers lean on a storm definition including gusts of 55mph or more, and quotes FCA figures showing that 32% of storm claims made in 2024 ended in a payout. Those are national numbers, not a forecast for your claim.
Before you repair anything
The ABI's 2022 storm advice, issued during Storm Eunice, still reads sensibly. Tell the insurer early. If a temporary repair is needed to stop things getting worse, have that conversation with them before the work is done. Receipts matter too, because they count as evidence if you claim.
In practice that means three steps. Photograph the garage roof, inside and out, before anything is moved. Write down the date and what happened, including the weather. Then tell the insurer and ask what they want to see. Some will send an assessor; others will ask for a roofer's report or photographs and a written quote.
If water is getting in, we stop that first. Our survey then records the fault with pictures taken on your garage, and the written quote names what has failed, which gives the insurer something concrete to read. What we cannot do is handle your claim for you or tell you whether it will succeed. That decision is between you, your policy and your insurer.
How the covering and its condition change the picture
Assessors look at what the garage roof is made of and what upkeep it has had. A flat felt roof that was last renewed some time ago, and has since been patched with a tub of mastic, reads very differently from a sound one that has been torn by a fallen branch. Our comparison of felt and EPDM garage roofs explains how long each covering typically lasts, which helps you judge whether a failure is likely to be classed as age.
Metal and sheet roofs bring their own points. A dented or lifted profile sheet after a storm may be a straightforward storm repair, whereas rust along the laps is gradual. If you are weighing up a replacement of steel sheets, our page on steel profile sheets for garages shows what the sheets are and how they fail.
Cement sheets deserve particular caution. If a storm has broken a sheet on an older garage, do not handle the pieces. Our guide to the broken asbestos sheet tells you what to do and who to call. A damaged cement-sheet roof also has to be removed and disposed of properly, and the cost of that is a separate matter from the insurer's decision.
Planning the repair and keeping the paperwork
If the insurer agrees to pay, or you decide to fund the work yourself, the next question is timing. Our page on how long a garage roof replacement takes sets out what affects the schedule, which is useful if the policy asks for repairs to be done within a stated period.
Keep the survey photographs, the written quote and the final invoice together with your policy documents. If the garage is later sold, a buyer's solicitor may ask for the paperwork, and our 10-year workmanship guarantee, which is in writing but is not insurance-backed, is part of that file. Do not confuse it with an insurance policy: it covers our workmanship, not storm damage or age.
For the national picture on storm claims, the Financial Ombudsman Service storm damage guide explains what happens if a claim is refused: the insurer gets the first chance to put it right, and the ombudsman comes after. When you are ready, our garage roof replacement page explains how a survey and written quote work.