Storm damage to an alfresco: will insurance pay in Victoria?

Evidence first

The claim evidence checklist: what to capture before anything is repaired

Work top to bottom. This is the order a claim actually needs the material in, and the order in which the evidence disappears. Tick as you go, print it, and keep the file on your phone. Your ticks are saved in this browser only.

Before anyone touches anything

Wide shot of the whole alfresco from the back fence, showing the house it attaches to.
Close shots of every damaged element: roof sheets, flashings, gutter, posts, beams, ceiling lining, benchtop, cabinet doors.
Photograph the fixings and screw holes where a sheet lifted. That detail is what proves wind uplift rather than corrosion.
Photograph water lines and staining inside cabinets with the doors open and a torch on.
Take a short video walking the area and describing out loud what you can see and hear.
Photograph damage elsewhere on the property and in the street. Neighbourhood damage supports a single-event claim.
Check that your phone is recording date, time and location on the photos.

Measure and record

Overall roof size in square metres, and the number of sheets affected.
Roof profile and colour name, off the original invoice or the underside of a sheet, so a match can be sourced.
Benchtop material, thickness and run length in lineal metres.
Brand and model of the built-in BBQ, fridge, kegerator and any pizza oven, off the compliance plates.
Note the date and rough time the damage happened, and the weather at the time.

Keep, do not throw out

Every removed roof sheet, screw, bracket and post base until the claim is settled. Stack it down the side of the house.
Damaged cabinet doors and benchtop offcuts, even if they look like rubbish.
The original build contract, invoices and any variation paperwork.
The building permit, the certificate of final inspection and the engineering computations.
The gas compliance certificate and the certificate of electrical safety for the outdoor kitchen.
Receipts for every maintenance job: gutter cleans, resealing, BBQ services. This is what defeats a wear-and-tear argument.

Write down and report

Lodge the claim the same day if you can, and write down the claim number and the name of everyone you speak to.
Ask on that first call whether a make-safe is authorised, and get the authority in writing or by SMS.
Keep every make-safe invoice and photograph the make-safe work once it is done.
Write a plain one-page timeline: what you heard, when you found it, what you did, who you called.
Get one independent itemised builder quote of your own before you discuss any settlement figure.
Ask for the assessor report and the scope of works in writing. You are entitled to see what the repair is priced on.

Do not do these

Do not clean up, cart away or dispose of anything before the photos are taken.
Do not accept a cash settlement figure before you hold an independent itemised quote.
Do not let anyone do unlicensed gas or electrical work on a damaged outdoor kitchen.
Do not sign a scope of works you have not read line by line.
Do not guess on the claim form. If you are unsure when damage started, say you are unsure.
Do not let a door-knocker who turned up after the storm start work without a written quote and a licence number.

Covered event or wear and tear: how an assessor actually decides

Every alfresco claim in this part of Melbourne turns on one question: was this one event on one day, or was it four years of nothing being done. Assessors are not looking for a reason to decline, they are looking for a cause, and the cause is written all over the failed component.

Wind uplift leaves torn screw holes, elongated fixing points and clean bright metal where the sheet tore. Corrosion leaves rust bloom around the fixings, a chalky weathered surface and a screw that spins in a soft hole. Storm water ingress leaves a sharp tide line and a wet ceiling batt. Gradual ingress leaves black mould, a swollen carcass and a smell. That is why the checklist above asks you to photograph the fixings rather than just the sheet lying on the lawn.

Cranbourne, Berwick and Narre Warren all sit in a wind region under AS/NZS 1170.2 where the roof design has to allow for uplift, not just for the weight of the sheet pressing down. The classic City of Casey claim is a 38°C northerly ahead of a southerly change, a hot dry blast that gets under the leading edge of an alfresco roof and peels it back like a can lid. If the original build tied that roof down with the correct fixing type at the correct spacing, and the footings were designed for the uplift, the sheet stays on. If it did not, you have a claim and possibly a conversation with the original builder as well.

Hail is the other big one, and it is worth being blunt: hail dents on a Colorbond alfresco roof are almost always cosmetic. The coating is intact, the sheet still sheds water, and many policies exclude purely cosmetic damage. If you are told the dents are not covered, that is usually correct rather than the insurer being difficult.

Make-safe: what it covers and who pays

A make-safe is emergency work that stops further damage and removes danger. On an alfresco that means strapping or removing a lifted sheet, propping or bracing a post, isolating gas at the cock and power at the board, and tarping or wrapping open cabinetry so the next shower does not finish the job. It is not the repair, and it is not meant to look good.

Almost every insurer will authorise a make-safe on the first phone call, before any assessor has been to the property, and it forms part of the claim rather than an extra you pay on top of the excess. Ring the claims line before you ring a builder, because a make-safe you organise yourself without authority can be argued about later. Realistic 2026 figures: $600 to $1,500 for a straightforward roof make-safe, $1,200 to $2,500 where an elevated work platform is needed, and $300 to $700 to isolate services and wrap a kitchen run.

One warning. The make-safe is exactly the moment the evidence disappears, because the crew cuts, straps and removes the very components that prove what happened. Ten minutes with a phone camera before they start is worth more to your claim than anything else on this page.

Excess versus repair cost: the number that decides everything

Run this before you lodge anything, because a lodged claim sits on your record whether or not it is ever paid.

Damage	Typical repair 2026	With a $750 excess	Verdict
Two roof sheets refixed	$900 to $2,000	$150 to $1,250 back	Pay it yourself
Full re-sheet, 30 sqm alfresco roof	$3,500 to $6,500	$2,750 to $5,750 back	Claim it
One cabinet module water damaged	$600 to $1,400	Under or near the excess	Pay it yourself
Full kitchen run recabineted after ingress	$6,500 to $16,000	$5,750 to $15,250 back	Claim it
Post and footing re-instated after uplift	$900 to $2,400 per post	Depends on post count	Only if two or more posts
Hail dents, coating intact	Cosmetic only	Usually excluded	Do not claim

The rough rule we give people at the kitchen table: if the repair is less than about twice your excess, pay for it and keep the claims history clean. A claim record follows you between insurers, and two small claims can move a premium more than the small claims paid out. If the repair sits between two and four times the excess, get the independent quote first and decide with real numbers in front of you rather than a guess.

Assessor, scope of works, and the two settlement roads

On anything above a few thousand dollars an insurer will send a loss assessor, or engage a building consultant, to inspect and write a scope of works. The scope is the itemised list of what will be repaired, replaced or left alone, and every dollar of the settlement flows from it. Read it line by line. The three things routinely missing on alfresco scopes are the flashing where the roof meets the house wall, the sealing and refinishing of a concrete benchtop that has been wet, and the electrical or gas re-certification after any component is disturbed.

Cash settlement

The insurer pays you a figure and you organise the work. You choose your builder, you can upgrade at your own cost, and you can bank part of it if you decide to change the design. The trap is that the figure is usually built at panel-builder rates, which can sit 10 to 25 per cent below what an independent builder charges for the same scope, and once you accept, the shortfall is yours. Never accept a cash figure before you hold your own itemised quote.

Insurer-managed repair

The insurer’s panel builder does the work and the insurer carries the workmanship warranty on it, which is real protection and the right choice for a lot of people. The trap here is matching. Discontinued Colorbond colours, a polished concrete benchtop poured on site, a stone slab from a batch that no longer exists: panel scopes tend to price a like-for-like replacement that is not actually like for like, and you end up with a patch you can see from the kitchen window forever. Raise matching before work starts, in writing, not after.

If you get stuck, the insurer’s internal complaints process is the first step and the Australian Financial Complaints Authority is the free external step after that. Insurers subscribing to the General Insurance Code of Practice also work to published timeframes for deciding a claim, so if you are being left hanging, ask for the decision timeframe in writing.

When we tell people not to claim

We have no stake in whether you lodge, so here is the straight version.

The repair is under twice your excess. Pay it. The premium effect over three renewals usually costs more than the payout.
The damage is cosmetic hail denting. Most policies exclude it and an unsuccessful claim still sits on your record.
The failure is clearly maintenance. Rusted-out post bases, rotten timber, a gutter that has not been cleared since the house was built. A declined claim costs you the excess of your time and gives the next insurer a reason to load you.
The structure has no permit. Sort the approval first. Lodging a claim on an unapproved structure can turn a repair problem into a compliance problem with the council as well.
You were about to rebuild anyway. If the alfresco was already on the list to be replaced, a repair claim can leave you with a patched roof you then pull off next year.

And a boundary on our side: we are builders, not insurance brokers or claims advocates. We write the scope, we do the work, we supply the paperwork an assessor asks for, and we will tell you honestly what we think caused the damage. We do not negotiate with your insurer for you, and we will not write a causation opinion that says storm when the component in our hand says corrosion.

Rebuilding better than it was

A claim is the one time the money is on the table to fix the original mistake. If the roof lifted because the fixings were wrong, the replacement should be engineered for uplift and screwed at the spacing the design calls for. If water got into the cabinets, the rebuild should use marine-grade compact laminate or 316 stainless carcasses rather than the coated chipboard that failed. If a cheap 40mm pre-fab benchtop cracked, this is the moment to move to a properly reinforced poured top or a porcelain slab.

The insurer pays for like-for-like. You pay the difference for the upgrade, and it is almost always the cheapest upgrade you will ever buy, because the labour, the access and the demolition are already funded. Have a look at current alfresco and outdoor kitchen pricing, how we build roofed alfresco areas and outdoor kitchens, the City of Casey permit process if the original never had one, and the maintenance schedule that keeps the next claim from being a wear-and-tear argument. If the damage is live right now, start with the first-hour emergency steps.

Get a price

Get an itemised insurance repair quote for your alfresco

Send the details and photos and we will come back inside one business day with a written, itemised scope your assessor can price against.

Insurance claim questions

Does Victorian home insurance cover storm damage to an alfresco and outdoor kitchen?

A standard home building policy in Victoria covers storm, wind, hail and impact damage to fixed structures on the land, and an alfresco roof with a built-in kitchen under it is a fixed structure. What it does not cover is rust, rot, gradual water ingress, general wear and tear, or damage to something that was never built to the approvals it needed. The practical test an assessor applies is whether one identifiable event on one identifiable day caused the damage. A roof sheet peeled off in a 90 km/h northerly is a claim; the same sheet rattling loose over four summers because the screws were never tightened is maintenance.

What is a make-safe and who pays for it?

A make-safe is the emergency work that stops further damage and removes danger: strapping or removing a lifted roof sheet, propping a post, isolating gas or power, tarping over open cabinetry. Most insurers will authorise a make-safe over the phone before an assessor has been anywhere near the property, and it sits inside the claim rather than on top of your excess. Expect $600 to $1,500 for a straightforward roof make-safe and $1,200 to $2,500 if an elevated work platform is needed. Photograph the damage before the make-safe crew touches it, because that work legitimately destroys the evidence.

Should I claim if the repair is only $1,500?

Often not. With a typical excess of $500 to $1,000, a $1,500 repair puts $500 to $1,000 in your pocket once, and a claim on your record can lift the premium at the next two or three renewals. Add the time cost of an assessor visit and a scope of works and the margin gets thin. As a rough rule, if the repair is less than about twice your excess, pay it yourself and keep the claims history clean for the roof replacement you may need in five years.

Cash settlement or insurer-managed repair: which is better?

Cash settlement gives you control of who does the work and lets you upgrade at your own cost, but the figure is usually calculated at the insurer builder's rates, which can be 10 to 25 per cent under what an independent builder charges, and once you accept it the shortfall is yours. Insurer-managed repair puts the workmanship warranty on the insurer's panel builder, which is genuine protection, but you do not choose the trade and matching a discontinued Colorbond colour or a bespoke benchtop is where those jobs go wrong. Take cash settlement only if you have an itemised independent quote in hand first.

What will the insurer ask my builder to provide?

Usually five things: an itemised scope of works separating make-safe, repair and replacement; dated photographs of the damage and of anything hidden once it is opened up; a short written opinion on causation, meaning whether this was a single event or long-term deterioration; evidence of licensing and registration plus a current certificate of currency for public liability, commonly $10 million to $20 million; and an ABN-bearing quote. On structural damage they will often also want an engineer's report, which is $800 to $2,000 in the City of Casey and is normally reimbursable inside the claim.

My alfresco never had a building permit. Am I covered?

Assume you are not, and get advice before you lodge. Most Australian home policies contain a condition that structures were built in accordance with the relevant laws and approvals, and a roofed alfresco built without the building permit it needed hands the insurer a clean basis to decline. It also matters at sale, because building permits issued in the previous seven years have to be disclosed in the section 32 vendor statement. Retrospective approval through a registered building surveyor plus any rectification typically runs $2,500 to $8,000, which is cheap next to an uninsured $25,000 structure.

Will home insurance pay for a storm-damaged alfresco in Victoria? Usually yes, with four exceptions