Question answered
Does house insurance cover chimney repairs?
The short answer
Sometimes. A home policy may pay when a storm damages a chimney, but many exclude damage that builds up gradually, and a stack worn by age counts as wear and tear. The Financial Ombudsman Service weighs three points: a storm on the date, damage typical of a storm, and the storm being the main cause. Speak to your insurer before permanent repairs.
It depends on what caused the damage. A chimney brought down by a storm is treated very differently from one that has crumbled with age, and the policy wording decides which applies.
Storm damage: what the Ombudsman asks
When a storm claim is contested, the Financial Ombudsman Service applies three tests. First, the weather on the day: did a storm really occur then? Second, the type of damage: is it what storms usually do? Third, the real cause: would the damage have appeared anyway, whatever the weather?
Its working picture of a storm is violent wind, often with rain, hail or snow. It adds that the burden sits with the insurer, who carries the burden of showing that an exclusion fits, so an early refusal is not the last word.
For a chimney the pattern is familiar. A pot thrown down in a named gale, a stack top knocked off by a falling branch or a flashing ripped away on the windward side may fit. If the stack was already cracked, leaning or crumbling, the third question becomes the hard one. Our page on a chimney fallen in a storm covers the emergency side, and the chimney repairs hub covers the wider work.
Wear and tear and gradual damage
The Ombudsman points out that exclusions in policies frequently reach damage that arrived gradually. Which? gives as its example of wear and tear a roof that was not looked after, with water getting through it into the house. A chimney is the same kind of structure, exposed on all sides, and slow decay is what that wording describes.
Several common chimney faults build over years and are usually seen as maintenance. Bricks with flaking faces, covered in the spalling chimney bricks answer, mortar that has washed out, a cracked flaunching and a missing cap all belong to that group.
Which? adds that insurers commonly define a storm by a minimum gust speed, and quotes Financial Conduct Authority data showing that just 32 per cent of claims for storm damage in 2024 were paid. Nobody can promise an outcome before the insurer has looked at the claim, so read the policy wording and ask the insurer directly about chimneys.
What to do first when a chimney is damaged
Contact your insurer promptly. Speak to the insurer before commissioning even a temporary repair, then have the opening covered so rain cannot get in, and keep every photograph and receipt. The same order is sensible for a chimney.
Keep people away from anything that could drop. Take pictures from the garden and, if the loft is safe to enter, from inside it, before anything is moved. Note the date, the time and the weather. Keep receipts for any emergency work, including scaffolding.
A roofer can make a stack safe and write down what was found. We make an unsafe or leaking roof safe first, then record the cause in photographs. That record describes the fault; it does not decide the claim. Permanent repair should wait until the insurer has been told, and the chimney scaffolding page explains why access is part of the cost.
When the insurer says no, or pays less
Take your complaint to the insurer first. After eight weeks with no final answer, or on receiving one you dislike, you may go to the Financial Ombudsman Service. The limit is six months, counted from the date printed on the final response, and its service is free. Details are on the Financial Ombudsman Service website.
A clear, dated record helps. Photographs from before the storm, if you have any, show how the stack stood. A written report from a roofer on what failed and where can support your case, though the Ombudsman weighs everything, including the wording of the policy.
A refusal does not always mean nothing is owed. The insurer must show that an exclusion applies, and a stack that was sound until a named gale is a different case from one already failing.
Keeping a stack sound before a gale tests it
A stack that is checked and kept in repair is less likely to fail in the first place. Pointing, flaunching, flashings and caps are the weak points, and a short survey can find them before a gale does. If a stack is ever lowered or rebuilt, the 3-2-10 rule page explains how outlet height is judged in England.
Maintenance has a practical edge too. A planned repair runs on your timetable, with the scaffold booked and a written quote in your hand, instead of being an emergency arranged after the weather has done its worst. Ask us for a survey of the stack and we will send photographs with the quote, so the condition of each part is on record before any weather arrives. Dated pictures like these are also useful if you ever need to show your insurer how the stack stood.
Chimney claims: two further questions
What if the chimney stack was already cracked before the storm?
That bears on the third test, the real cause. A pre-existing crack does not rule out a claim automatically, but it lets the insurer argue the damage would have come regardless, which is wear and tear. Dated photographs from before the storm are useful.
How long do I have to take a refusal to the Ombudsman?
The clock runs for six months from the date on the insurer's last letter. The Ombudsman says you may approach it once eight weeks have passed without a final response, or when the reply you get does not satisfy you. Its service is free. Keep copies of every letter.
Tell us about your roof
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