The short answer
Work stops where the bat or its droppings were found, and nothing gets sealed, moved or disturbed until you have advice. Every bat species is protected by law, as is anywhere it breeds or rests, and GOV.UK names roof repair and roof replacement as work that can affect bats. Whether a licence is needed depends on what the work would do, not on the bat alone.
What the law protects
The government's bat guidance treats every species as protected, along with the places bats breed and rest. Two pieces of legislation do the work, and they ask different things of a person.
The Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017, regulation 43, makes it an offence to harm a place where a bat breeds or rests, whether by damage or by destroying it. The wording carries no word about intent, so a roofer who strips a section of roof without knowing a roost was there can still be caught by it. The same regulation covers deliberately disturbing a bat.
The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, section 9(4), adds two more offences, each needing the person to act "intentionally or recklessly". One is disturbing a bat that is using a structure for shelter. The other is obstructing access to such a place. Blocking a gap at the eaves with new fascia board or closing a hole under the ridge with mortar could fall under that second one if the roof is known to hold bats.
None of this means a roof with a bat cannot be repaired. It means the work follows the advice you get, and the owner is told before the gap is closed.
What to do the moment one turns up
The first rule is to stop work in that area. A bat found in a loft, behind a fascia or under a lifted tile has been using that space for a reason, and the roof timbers around it may hold more.
These steps keep everyone on the right side of the law:
- stop the job on that part of the roof, and leave the bat where it is;
- do not seal the gap, fill the hole or replace the tile or board that you lifted until advice says you can;
- do not handle a bat with bare hands, and keep pets and children away from it;
- note where it was, take photos of the spot and any droppings, and tell the owner straight away;
- get advice from someone qualified in bat work before the repair carries on.
Work elsewhere on the building can often go ahead while the question is settled, so a bat in the rear eaves need not stop a front slope being repaired. The decision on that belongs with the person giving the advice, not with the roofer.
Bats are small, quiet and easy to miss, which is why this page exists. A homeowner who cannot see one in daylight may still have a roost, so the signs matter as much as the animal.
Licences: when they come into it
It would be wrong to say that bat licences are always needed on a roof job. Many roof repairs touch no roost at all. A licence comes into the picture when the work would otherwise commit one of the offences above, such as damaging a resting place, and a qualified ecologist is the person who judges that for a given roof.
The reverse is also true. Not knowing a bat was there is no defence under regulation 43, because that offence does not turn on intent. A repair that closes a roost by accident is still a problem, which is why the questions are asked before the scaffold goes up rather than after.
For the homeowner, the practical result is timing. If a roof job is likely to disturb a roost, the programme may need to wait for advice, and the licence route, where it applies, runs to its own schedule rather than the roofer's. We cannot promise a start date for a roof where this arises, and the date waits for that advice.
If you already know that bats use your house, tell us at the first visit. Saying so early changes how we plan the job from the start.
How we look for signs before work starts
Every job begins with a survey, and the survey includes the places where roosts tend to show. In the loft we look along the ridge board and the underside of the roof for droppings, and on the outside we look at the gaps at the eaves, the ridge ends and the edges of fascia boards. Staining below a small gap can be a sign. So can scratches or grease marks around an entrance.
You see the photos from the survey and hear in plain words what we found. If there are signs, we tell you, and the written price waits until you have the advice you need. If there are none, we say that too, though a roof with no signs on survey day can still surprise a crew later, which is why the stop-and-advise rule applies to every job.
Work on a roof that is also known to hold birds follows a separate rule. Our answer on nesting birds and roof work covers that, and the Building Regulations page sets out the approvals that sit alongside wildlife law on a re-roof. Everything starts from the Farnborough roofing homepage, where the services are listed.
