Check the condition of your commercial roof
Your address and four quick questions (takes about two minutes) and a plain read on how likely your roof is to cause you trouble.
Commercial roofs fail slowly, in plain sight from above. The signs an insurer looks for are often visible years before anyone claims.
Your address, then four quick questions about the roof. Where you are not sure, say so or skip it, and you still get a read.
What is the building address?
Start typing and choose your building from the list.
This check is for people who own the building. Renting the premises you trade from? The building is usually the landlord's to insure, so start with insurance for business owners who rent.
How do I check the condition of my commercial roof?
Quick answer
Start from the ground and from inside. Look for rust streaks around the fixings and gutters, water stains on the ceiling below and standing water after rain. Look too for loose or missing sheets and tiles, and old patch repairs nobody has touched since. Then have the parts you cannot see checked: the laps, box gutters and flat sections.
Inside, that faint smell in a back corner after heavy rain is worth noting too. This check asks you about most of these signs.
Most owners have never seen their own roof. You cannot see much of a low-pitched commercial roof from the footpath, and climbing onto one is a job for somebody with a harness.
So the roof can go unchecked until it leaks. In our experience, damage that was already there is the biggest thing roof claims get reduced for.
The parts you cannot see need a look from above, and Roof Condition Monitoring sets out what you get when we find something. If your question is really about a claim, whether a leak is covered depends on the cause. How Your Roof Condition Affects Insurance Claims answers it in full.
What this check asks, and why
The check asks about four things that can flag a need for a closer look. They are what the roof is made of, roughly how old it is, when somebody last looked at it, and what you have already noticed. The last three move your result. The material tells us what to look for, and what you have seen tells the broker where to start.
What the roof is made of. This one does not change your result. Metal rusts, first at the fixings and the laps. Tiles crack and slip. Flat membrane roofs pond, and standing water works at the seams.
Roughly how old it is. We mean the age of the roof itself, and a re-roof resets the clock. If you are not sure, say so: the check counts that too.
When somebody last looked at it. A roof that gets checked every couple of years has small problems found while they are still small. If nobody has been up there in five years, you do not know what is there, and your insurer may see it first.
What you have already noticed. Rust, leaks, pooling water, loose or missing sheets and tiles. Any of them moves your result. Water already coming inside makes the result red on its own, because the damage is already happening.
What this check will not do
It will not tell you your roof is fine. When you see your result, nobody from our team has looked at your roof yet, so it reflects your own answers and nothing more. A green result means you have not described the usual warning signs, not that your roof has been checked.
The result is only as good as your answers, and where you were not sure, the result says so.
Keep a record of what was found and any action you take. If a known problem is left unresolved and contributes to later damage, the insurer may rely on it when assessing the claim. Recording the problem is useful, but it does not replace dealing with it.
What happens if the result is amber or red
You can ask us to look at the roof from the air. Anything we find comes to you as a free Roof Condition Alert. The point is to get a problem fixed while it is still a repair, before it can cost you when you claim.
Leave your name and a number, and a broker contacts you to understand the building, the roof and what you would like done about it. It does not matter who insures the building today.
The Alert also sets out what the problem could mean for your cover if it were left as it is. If the review finds a problem, whether and when you act is your decision. You might get a roofing contractor onto it straight away or plan the work. Sometimes the insurer brings up the roof at renewal before you have done anything about it. In our experience, the insurer holding the policy generally offers renewal when it knows you are acting on it, though the terms stay its decision. If the renewal raises more than the roof, our commercial property insurance page sets out the rest of a building owner's cover.
The commercial wordings we place exclude wear and tear. When a storm damages a roof that was already deteriorating, an insurer can argue the real cause was wear and tear. That argument turns on evidence of the roof's condition and of what caused the loss. Your insurer may already hold dated aerial imagery of your roof before you lodge the claim. How Your Roof Condition Affects Insurance Claims sets out where the line falls.
If you insure with us and a storm damages the roof, a specialist claims manager will run the claim with your broker still involved.
We do not promise a claim will be paid because we checked, and we never will.
Short answers
Can you see my roof without anyone climbing onto it?
Yes. Consolidated Insurance Brokers can review the roof from recent aerial imagery, which shows the box gutters, laps and flat sections that are hard to see from the ground. The signs you can spot yourself are the ones this check asks about.
Is a red result proof that something is wrong with my roof?
No. It comes only from what you told us. The check counts the roof's age, the time since anyone last looked at it, and any sign you have seen, from rust and pooling water to loose sheets or water inside. Water inside makes the result red on its own. A review from aerial imagery is how somebody actually looks, and if it finds something, you get a Roof Condition Alert.
What happens to the answers I give this check?
They stay with us, and we do not send them to an insurer. Your answers are enquiry information: we use them to prepare your Roof Condition Alert and to brief the account manager who calls you. If cover is later arranged or changed, your broker goes through with you anything that needs to be disclosed properly.
What does the Roof Condition Alert cost, and what happens after I submit my details?
Nothing. The Alert is free. Ring us or leave your name and number, and a broker will ask what you need: the roof looked at, what your insurer has raised, or the building's cover as a whole. If there is something to report, your Roof Condition Alert arrives within three business days, explaining what we found and what a roofing contractor should look at. If nothing on the imagery concerns us, there is nothing to send.
Talk through your roof check with a broker
Find out whether an aerial review would help.
Ring 07 3292 1111 to talk your result through with a broker.