roof damage disappointment

Andy_Goulding

Morning everyone, apologies i'm new to this.
I've just got off the phone after being passed around for ages with my home insurance company.
On sunday 29/04/2012 almost all of my ridge tiles on the roof were blown loose & several of these smashed on the patio through severe adverse winds.
Never claimed in my life on house insurance so thought here goes, got through to the emergency hotline (eventually) to be told we will send somebody round within 24 hrs (so had to organise a day off work for Monday), they arrived Monday 30/4/2012, removed remainder of the loose tiles & made sure no more would come off & made sure the roof was watertight. They then made a phone call to see if they could actually finish the job there & then, but were told no, make it safe etc & fill a report in to us.
5 days later, I phone the insurance company to get a forcast on when the job will be completed. only to be told the winds on that particular day were NOT strong enough to warrant the claim to continue (even though local press reported large trees being uprooted etc).
Although the guy on the phone was polite, my blood was boiling.
I'm now being told to get an independant roofer to come & assess the damage & what caused it & then send all this information to the insurance firm for them to assess all at my cost for them to probably still say sorry not covered.

Any advice at his moment will be greatly appreciated.
Incidently, my car insurance is with the same company & through the total lack of confidence with this issue surprise surprise, won't be in a couple of months when the renewals due, I even told him that, but didn't seem that bothered.

Regards

justjohn

get as much info on how bad the winds were eg. press cuttings/news reports and forward it to insurance company. then see what they say.

VictorM_2

Your insurance policy covers you for storm, if winds have not been at a speed that would exceed 55mph (some insurers use 47mph) then that would just be normal wind which a well maintained roof should have not problems withstanding.

Ask then how far away the weather station is, often it is a fair way away. If that site case it would be a judgement call by the claims handler. If you are in a more exposed location than your local weather station that may help you.