My neighbour has informed me that my roof is damaged. He knows this because he had some broken tiles and got in a builder to sort it who said that the coping tiles from my roof (end terraced house) had blown off and across to his. He had his few broken tiles fixed for 60 quid but the builder has told him my roof is a more complex fix.

We live on a steep hill and im expecting that scaffolding will be needed. I’ve checked in the loft and you can see light through the membrane. The roof cant be old as it has the white plastic membrane instead of roof felt.

So my question is, do I go through insurance first, or call the builder who left his card with my neighbour? Does buildings insurance (tesco) work like car insurance where they are evil money grabbing bstards who will try every trick to not pay out or screw your future premiums over?

I think I’d be getting a couple of quotes in the first instance, then you can make an informed decision as to whether it’s worth involving the insurance. (Ie, if it’s going to be £600 and the insurance excess is £500 it’s probably a non-starter.)

Is the damage wear and tear or life expired roof beginning to fail? Insurer will not cover that but may cover storm damage.

Insurance will only cover damage, such as storm damage.
They won’t cover if it has deteriorated due to wear and tear or lack of maintenance.
If you call your insurers they are likely to ask when the damage was caused and they check that against weather records etc.
If the neighbours tiles sliding into your roof have damaged your roof, you need to claim off the neighbour.

For a successful insurance claim you’d need to show that the roof damage is due to a insured event (storm) and not due to wear and tear / poor maintenance / neglect.

Im guessing that the damage must have been caused by a storm as the tiles from my roof had blown off and across to my non-adjoining neighbours roof. Im not sure when this happened but it must have been recently. Unfortunately Im not sure how to prove it, as the tiles from my roof are no longer on my neighbours roof as he has had his fixed yesterday.

It appears our roof is less than 10 years old due to the type of membrane and tiles used, according to the roofer I just called.

He’s getting some quotes but he said it depends on whether he uses a ladder for access or scaffold. Our house is quite high up being end terrace and on a hill.

The other question is, do I offer to pay the 60 quid repair cost that my neighbour had to foot?