Roofers insurance in Brighton

A Brighton roofing week is spent on other people’s flats. The city’s bow-fronted and stucco terraces run up from the seafront onto the chalk downland behind, and a very large share of them were long ago carved into flats and shared houses. One roof sits over several separate households, a freeholder and usually a managing agent, and every one of them has a view on what you do up there.

The exposure that actually costs money is rarely the fall. It is water. A Victorian terrace of this kind is often roofed as a shallow M shape behind a parapet, draining into a central valley gutter that nobody has looked at for years. Open that roof up, take a night of driven rain off the Channel, and the damage runs down through a flat that has nothing to do with the job you were booked for.

Apex is a Bristol-based commercial broker and we arrange roofing cover on the basis of how the work is really carried out — parapets, valleys, occupied flats and coastal weather included — placed by a named broker who will present the risk properly rather than let it be declined on trade code alone.

Key covers for roofers

• Public liability — injury or damage arising from your work, including water entering the flat below while a roof is stripped, and slates or tools reaching the pavement on a narrow terraced street — often £5m–£10m depending on who you contract with.
• Employers’ liability — legally required for employed staff and for labour-only sub-contractors, which is most roofing crews.
• Tools and equipment — theft of ladders, roof jacks, nail guns and gas kit from a van parked overnight on a permit street, or from a scaffold left up over a weekend.
• Contract works — your work in progress against storm and water damage before hand-over. On a terrace with parapet gutters, this is the cover that responds when weather beats you to the felt.
• Hot works — torch-on felt on the flat roofs of rear extensions and bay tops is routine here, and cover depends on permit and fire-watch conditions being kept.
• Professional indemnity — where you specify a build-up, a detail or a drainage arrangement rather than simply installing what was drawn for you.
• Personal accident — optional cover if injury stops you working.

Brighton roofs, Brighton risks

Brighton is a seafront city of Regency and Victorian terraces on chalk, with a rented and converted-flat sector out of all proportion to its size. That combination shapes almost every roofing risk here.

• Parapets and hidden valley gutters. Bow-fronted and stucco terraces commonly hide their roofs behind a parapet, with the water taken away internally. A blocked or failed valley discharges inside the building rather than down the front, so a defect you did not create can surface as a claim against the last person on the roof.
• One roof, several households. Converted flats mean a freeholder or managing agent instructing, leaseholders underneath, and tenants in the rooms that get wet. Expect to be asked for evidence of cover before you are allowed on site, and expect a claim to be routed through an agent rather than a homeowner.
• Salt air off the Channel. Coastal exposure attacks fixings, flashings and cast-iron rainwater goods faster than it does inland. Nail fatigue on old slate and corroded flashings mean more of the roof is failing than the quote allowed for, which is where scope disputes start.
• Steep, narrow, parked-up streets. The terraces climb sharply off the seafront. Scaffold on a sloping, permit-controlled street with cars either side and pedestrians alongside raises the public liability picture well above a job on an open plot.

Weather, open roofs and the seafront

Onshore gales. The city takes wind straight off the Channel with nothing in front of it. A stripped roof, a sheeted scaffold or a stack of loose slate is a very different proposition in a south-westerly here than it is inland, and insurers will look closely at how you sheet down and secure materials overnight.

Driven rain against exposed elevations. Wind-driven rain finds its way past flashings, through slipped slate and under temporary covering in a way that steady rainfall does not. Most of the water-ingress claims a Brighton roofer sees start with weather arriving while the roof was still open.

Working over the public. Seafront and central streets carry constant footfall. Debris netting, pavement licences and a sensible drop zone are not paperwork here — they are the difference between a manageable job and a serious injury claim.

Compliance considerations for roofers

Work at Height Regulations 2005 duties — edge protection, roof ladders and crawling boards, and a written method for every job that leaves the ground.

Fragile-surface duties — rooflights, cement sheet and corroded profiled decking are where most roofing falls actually happen, and underwriters ask how you deal with them.

Hot-works permit and fire-watch conditions imposed by insurers wherever torch-on felt, bitumen boilers or heat guns are used. The fire watch after you pack up is the condition most often broken.

CDM 2015 duties on larger contracts — you may hold principal contractor duties on a re-roof that involves more than one trade.

Scheme membership evidence — NFRC, CompetentRoofer or equivalent, where you hold it, along with your Building Regulations notification route for re-covering work.

What can go wrong

Rain arrives overnight while a terraced roof is stripped and water runs into the leasehold flat below — public liability or contract works, depending on whose property was damaged and when.

A blocked parapet valley backs up during the works and floods a converted top-floor flat — an argument about whether the defect pre-dated you, and one your insurer will need the file for.

A slate or offcut leaves the roof and reaches the pavement on a busy street — public liability, and a serious one where there is footfall below.

Torch-on work on a rear extension flat roof ignites dry timber in the eaves after the crew has left — a hot-works incident where the fire-watch condition decides the outcome.

A crew member falls from a scaffold on a sloping street — employers’ liability, with RIDDOR reporting and an HSE interest.

Tools and gas kit are taken from a van left overnight on a residential permit street — tools cover, subject to the security and overnight storage conditions.

Frequently asked questions

I mostly work on converted flats — who am I actually liable to?

Usually more people than instructed you. The freeholder or managing agent may be your client, but the leaseholder whose ceiling gets wet and the tenant whose belongings are damaged can both bring a claim. It is worth making sure your public liability limit reflects the value of the building underneath you rather than the value of the roof job.

Does anything cover me if the weather gets in while the roof is open?

Contract works cover is designed for your own work in progress; damage to the existing building and its contents sits with public liability if you are at fault, or with the building’s own insurer if you are not. Because so much Brighton stock drains internally through parapets and valleys, we make sure both sides of that line are properly covered.

Is torch-on and hot work covered?

Normally yes, subject to conditions — a permit and a fire-watch period after the torch goes off, typically an hour. Those conditions are enforced, so if flat-roof work on rear extensions and bay tops is a regular part of your income, tell us and we will make sure the wording matches it.

Managing agents keep asking for my certificate before I start. What do they want to see?

Almost always the public liability limit, the employers’ liability certificate and confirmation that roofing and work at height are actually described in the policy. We issue documents that state the trade properly so you are not held up at the door.

Why do insurers treat roofing as high-risk at all?

Work at height and hot works are the two things that produce severe claims, so a lot of mainstream insurers decline the trade outright rather than price it. That is a market-access problem rather than a reflection on your business, and it is what a specialist broker is for.

Related

• Roofers insurance
• Public liability insurance explained
• Employers’ liability insurance explained
• Underinsurance check
• Areas we cover