The short answer
Get everyone out of the affected rooms and keep them away, because a roof under a tree can move further. Ring your insurer, take photographs from a safe distance and get a roofer out to secure the roof. Do not cut the tree or go up yourself. A structural check of the rafters comes before the permanent repair.
Safety first, then the insurer
Think about people before property. If the tree has come through the roof, or the ceiling beneath it is sagging or cracked, move everyone out of those rooms and from the rooms directly below. Branches under tension can spring, and a roof that has taken a heavy load can shift again without warning.
If there is any smell of gas, sparking from cables or a broken water pipe, leave the building and call the relevant emergency service or utility from outside. Do not switch lights or appliances on or off in an affected area. If the tree is on a power line, stay well clear and report it.
Once everyone is safe, contact your insurer. The usual sequence is to tell the insurer first, make the property safe, and keep photographs and receipts. Which? notes that insurers usually run emergency helplines, so check your policy documents for the number.
Take your pictures from a safe distance on the lawn or path, showing the tree, the roof, the garden and the inside of any affected room. IStructE guidance on storm damage stresses how valuable photographs are for a claim. Do not go closer than is safe to get a better angle.
Whose tree it was can affect who pays, so note where it grew and whether it came from your land or a neighbour's.
Making the roof safe
The tree should come off the roof before anything else can happen, and that is a job for a tree surgeon, not a roofer or a homeowner. Cutting a tree that rests on a roof moves its weight, so it is done in a planned order by people with the equipment and training.
The roofer's task is to stop water getting in and to make the roof safe to stand under. That often means sheeting fixed on battens over the opening, and sometimes props or temporary support inside if rafters are cracked or displaced. Access may call for a tower or scaffold, which brings the licence question if it stands on the road, as our page on whether roof repairs need scaffolding explains.
Check one point before any felling. In a conservation area, work to trees normally needs notice to the council. Rushmoor's overview says six weeks' notice applies, and that trees with a stem of 75 millimetres or more at 1.5 metres height are protected. Emergency work on a dangerous tree is treated differently, so ask the council's tree officer before you act.
Do not remove debris from the roof or the room before the insurer has seen it unless it creates a hazard. Photographs are the first record, and receipts for the make-safe are the second.
Structural checks before the repair
A tree is heavy, and its weight can bend or crack rafters, split purlins (the horizontal timbers that support the rafters), shift the wall plate and push the ridge out of line. These faults are not always visible from outside, and a roof that looks closed in can still be weakened.
From inside the loft, a roofer looks for cracked or split timbers, rafters that are no longer straight, joints that have opened and signs that the roof structure has dropped. Cracks in the ceilings and walls below, doors that no longer close and gaps at the eaves all point to movement.
Where the damage is more than local, a structural engineer should assess it. Approved Document A treats a significant change in loading as an increase of more than 15 per cent, and a roof that has taken a tree has had a very large temporary load, so it needs a proper look and not a guess.
Only after the structure has been checked is the covering rebuilt. Rafters are repaired or replaced, battens and underlay renewed, and the tiles or slates laid to match the existing roof. Our page on storm damage to a roof describes the wider process, and the roof repairs hub covers our repairs.
Cost, claim and next steps
Damage from a tree falling is the sort of sudden event that buildings insurance is designed to cover, though policies differ and the result is the insurer's to decide. Read your wording, ask what is covered, and check the excess. If the tree was a neighbour's, ask your insurer whether it will pursue them.
MyJobQuote gives extensive storm repairs as £1,200 or more (MyJobQuote, Oct 2026), which is a typical UK figure and nothing more. A roof with a tree through it can be well beyond that, depending on the structure, the covering and the access.
Our part is the roof. We photograph what we find, measure the damaged area and explain it in plain words. Our permanent repair is quoted in writing as one figure, with the evidence shown beside it.
The insurer is for you to deal with, and its decision is not ours to predict, but our report and photographs are yours to pass on. Keep your own record too: dates, calls, names, receipts and a copy of every email.
When the roof is safe, the lasting repair follows. If you are unsure what to ask first, who to call for a leaking roof sets out the sequence of calls.
