The short answer
Usually not through the 14-day cooling-off period. That right is removed under regulation 28(1)(e) of the Consumer Contracts Regulations when you yourself called the trader out to deal with something urgent, and water coming through a ceiling is the standard case. Your rights over the quality of the work stay in place, and any larger job needs separate thought.
Where the cooling-off right stops
A contract agreed at your home rather than on the trader's premises normally comes with a cooling-off right. Under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 a consumer may cancel with no explanation, and for a service the window shuts 14 days after the contract is made.
One exception matters here. Regulation 28(1)(e) removes that right when you made a specific request for the trader to attend because something needed repairing or maintaining urgently. Citizens Advice describes it in everyday language: cooling-off is not automatic when you ask a firm into your house for an urgent job.
The question that decides it is who made first contact. If you rang about a stained, dripping ceiling and asked someone to come out, the request was yours. If a stranger knocked and announced that your roof was in a dangerous state, the facts are different, and you should get advice before assuming the exception covers it.
This page explains the rules and is not legal advice. The Citizens Advice consumer helpline, 0808 223 1133, can look at the details of your own case.
Work that goes beyond the urgent job
The exception is written around urgent repairs or maintenance. Suppose a roofer attends a leak, stops the water and then proposes something bigger, such as a stripped slope or a full re-cover. That proposal was not what you called the visit for, so the exception may not stretch to it.
How the cooling-off rules treat the second piece of work depends on the facts: what was agreed, when, and where. Citizens Advice points to a £42 threshold: a service at that price or above, offered by a business that came to you rather than the other way round, carries cooling-off, with 14 days as the floor. Whether a follow-on contract is covered is a question for its helpline.
A few habits protect you either way. Ask for the urgent repair and any further work to be set out in separate documents, each with its own total. Avoid agreeing to the bigger job while the ceiling is still dripping, because pressure makes for poor decisions.
A fair roofer separates the two as a matter of course. Once the leak is controlled, there is time to consider the rest at your own pace.
Rights you keep after the repair
Losing a cooling-off period does not leave you unprotected. Section 49 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 sets the standard for every service at reasonable care and skill, and an emergency job is as much a service as a planned one. Section 52 fills a gap: where no time was fixed, a reasonable one is implied.
If the work falls short, sections 54 and 57 deal with your remedies and prevent a trader from contracting out of them. A patch that fails in the next shower is a performance problem, and you can ask for it to be redone.
Section 308 of the DMCC Act 2024 adds a duty on the trader to tell you of any dispute-resolution arrangement available should the outcome disappoint you. Ask what the firm's route is before you pay, and note it down.
Keep proof throughout: the quote, dated photos of the damage and of the finished repair, the invoice and any messages. Our page on a new roof that is leaking shows how these rights apply to bigger jobs that go wrong.
How we run an urgent call-out
When water is getting in, the priority is to stop further harm. We make the roof safe first, using a temporary cover where that is the right move, and we describe plainly what has been done and what remains open.
Anything larger is handled apart from the call-out. If the inspection shows more than a patch is needed, you receive the photos and measurements, an explanation in ordinary words and a separate written price. Nothing bigger begins on the strength of the emergency visit alone.
This suits you whether or not a cooling-off right applies. With the leak controlled, you can take the time to compare quotes, ask questions and decide on the evidence, rather than being hurried at the worst moment. A repair that holds also lets the ceiling and insulation start drying out while the next step is planned.
For the wider picture, the roof repairs hub covers leaks, storm damage and temporary fixes. If you are unsure whether a patch will do, repairing or replacing a roof sets out what tips the balance, and the page on when to call an emergency roofer explains which problems really cannot wait.
