Ahmed claimed for damage to his roof and was unhappy that his insurer arranged a temporary repair instead of a permanent one.
What happened
Some tiles had come off Ahmed’s roof. This left a hole in the roof and rainwater had got into Ahmed’s attic. He called his insurer, who sent out a roofer.
The roofer inspected the roof and glued a waterproof sheet around the exposed area. The roofer told Ahmed he needed to carry out permanent repairs by fixing the tiles back on. Ahmed was unhappy the roofer didn’t do this for him, so he complained to his insurer and then to us.
What we said
We looked at the policy terms to see what the insurer was obliged to do. The terms said the insurer would stop the emergency as quickly as possible with a temporary repair. The terms also said the policyholder would need to carry out a permanent repair. We also looked at:
- photos of the roof
- photos of the temporary repair
- the roofer’s report
We thought the policy was clear about what was covered. There was no obligation for the insurer to carry out a permanent repair. We thought that the roofer could have tried to put the tiles back on, but the work carried out met the insurer’s obligations under the policy.
Even if the tiles were put back, we felt the condition of the roof meant that more work was needed anyway. We were satisfied that the insurer had dealt with the claim reasonably, so we didn’t uphold Ahmed’s complaint.