When Ahmed's roof was damaged, he claimed on his home insurance but the temporary fix his insurer arranged was disappointing.
What happened
Ahmed discovered that some tiles had come off his roof leaving a hole. Rainwater was getting into the attic, which he had to catch in a bucket. This was very inconvenient.
He called his insurer, who sent out a roofer to inspect the damage. The roofer glued a waterproof sheet around the exposed area to stop the leak.
The roofer told Ahmed he would need to carry out a permanent repair by fixing the tiles back on to the roof. Ahmed was unhappy the roofer hadn’t done this for him, so he complained to his insurer and then came to us for help.
What we said
We looked at the terms of Ahmed’s insurance policy to see what his insurer was obliged to do. The terms said the insurer would stop the emergency as quickly as possible with a temporary repair. They also said the policyholder would need to carry out a permanent repair.
We thought the policy was clear about what was covered. There was no obligation for the insurer to carry out a permanent repair.
We also looked at photos of the roof and the temporary repair, as well as the roofer’s report. We thought the roofer could have tried to replace the tiles, but the work that was carried out met the insurer’s obligations.
Even if the tiles had been put back, we felt the condition of the roof meant that further work was still needed. We were satisfied that the insurer had dealt with the claim reasonably, so we didn’t uphold Ahmed’s complaint.