Storm Austen and Storm Boelo arrived within days of each other in late October, the first two named storms of the season. Gusts reached 85mph, and the Energy Networks Association said 838,700 properties were affected by power cuts across the two storms. Falling trees caused fatal accidents.
The season has barely started. Aviva says one in five of its home insurance claims relate to storm damage and 84% of those fall between October and March, with January and February the peak. ABI figures put storm damage to homes at £244 million in 2025, up 32% on 2024, with an average payout of £2,450.
So the useful question this weekend is not only what the wind broke. It is whether you could show what you checked, when, and what you did about it.
The power cut is part of the damage
A building that lost power needs its own check, even if nothing looks wrong.
Emergency lights run on batteries, and a long cut can leave them flat with no outward sign. They can take up to 24 hours to recharge, so a second cut soon after is the risky one. Look at the fire alarm panel for faults and confirm it has returned to normal. Check that door entry, automatic opening vents, smoke extraction, sump pumps and any booster or sprinkler pumps came back as they should.
Lifts deserve particular care where water has reached the pit or motor room. LOLER expects a thorough examination after exceptional circumstances liable to jeopardise safety, not just at the usual interval. The same principle applies to scaffolding: the Work at Height Regulations 2005 require an inspection after any event liable to affect its safety, so any scaffold on your buildings needs one before anybody goes back up.
Walk the building from the top down
Start with what you can see from the ground: slipped tiles, lifted flashing, loose coping stones, damaged aerials and satellite dishes. Do not send anyone onto a roof until it is safe and they are competent to be there.
Then follow the water. Look in the top floor flats, roof spaces and stairwell ceilings. Clear gutters and gullies blocked by leaves and debris, because the next rain will find them. Check plant rooms, basements and bin stores for standing water.
Where someone has reported a leak, a hazard or a cold flat with broken windows, the reporting date matters. For social landlords in England, Awaab's Law timescales already apply to damp and mould and to emergency hazards, and they widen on 30 November.
Then walk the land
This is the half that tends to be missed. Fences, gates and boundary walls are often excluded from standard home policies, so it is worth checking your own wording rather than assuming. Before repairing a boundary, confirm whose it is. A fence put back in the wrong line is a dispute waiting to happen.
Look at every tree near a path, a car park or a building, including the ones still standing. A lifted root plate, a split fork or a hung branch can be more dangerous than the tree that came down. Use a competent person for anything you are not sure of.
Protected trees need more care. A tree preservation order does not vanish because a tree is damaged. There are exceptions for dead trees and for work needed to remove an immediate risk of serious harm, but they carry notice requirements and may carry a duty to replant. Photograph the tree first and speak to the local planning authority.
Check drainage last. Silt, leaves and debris wash into gullies, SuDS features and culverts, and the ground stays saturated for days, which is when a weakened tree or wall can go without further wind.
Write it down, on the day
Insurers often test whether damage came from the storm or from wear and poor maintenance. Dated photographs taken before and after, and your earlier inspection records, are what answer that. If two storms hit in quick succession, the record also helps show which damage came when, which can matter if each claim carries its own excess. Make the place safe, keep the damaged items if you can, and tell your insurer early.
A short record for each building and site is enough: who walked it, when, what they found, what was made safe, what was passed to a contractor, and when it was closed. The same record answers the question from a resident, an insurer or a regulator.
Where SAMRISK puts it
Each storm check can be raised as a dated maintenance job with an owner, with anything dangerous logged as an incident and photographs filed in the building's documents. Contractors called out go through contractors and permits, and follow-up inspections sit on the compliance calendar.
On the land side, fallen fences sit against the drawn line in land boundaries, protected trees in the TPO register, hazards in site risks, and gullies and SuDS in drainage. The next storm then starts from a record, not from memory.
Sources: Energy Networks Association, reported by Insurance Business, October 2026; Aviva claims data, reported by Insurance Business, October 2026; Association of British Insurers, property claims data for 2025, February 2026; Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998; Work at Height Regulations 2005; Town and Country Planning (Tree Preservation) (England) Regulations 2012.
General information as at October 2026. Not legal advice; check the regulation or ask a competent person.