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Drone insurance for roof surveys

The difficulty of a roof survey comes from the street-side pitch. A fall there reaches passers-by who take no part in the flight, and that exposure decides the applicable subcategory (A2 rather than A3), and so the conditions the insurer will set.

Roof survey: occupied building at 32 metres, open category A2 Section through a building with a pitched roof, with an out-and-back flight path above it. Mission altitude 32 metres, open category A2, bounded area: the street-side pitch. Dominant cover: third-party liability and hull. MISSION ALTITUDE 32 m CATEGORY OPEN · A2 POSITION 50.6326 N 5.5797 E BOUNDED AREA STREET-SIDE PITCH TPL + HULL

Typical mission readings. The values describe a common set-up, not yours.

Thirty metres, ten minutes of flying. On paper, the most ordinary job there is. In practice, the one that raises the most questions of qualification, and the difficulty does not come from the height: it comes from what is underneath.

It is not the building, it is the street

The inner pitch of a roof looks onto a yard or a garden you can make safe. The street-side pitch does not. Passers-by move along it, they take no part in the flight, and the regulations treat them as uninvolved third parties.

That pitch decides your subcategory, not whether the building is occupied.

Subcategory A2 sets a horizontal distance of 30 metres from uninvolved people, reducible to 5 metres in low-speed mode. On a narrow street that distance is often unworkable, and the job then moves to a standard scenario, with a controlled ground area.

We will not settle that question for you from a website: it depends on the width of the road, the height of the building and your aircraft. Write to us with an address and we will put the question properly.

Does your policy follow your actual set-up?

That your policy follows your actual set-up. An operator insured for the open category who in fact works under a standard scenario is not covered for what they do.

Light equipment, and one reservation about hired kit

Equipment stays modest in this sector: a mid-range aircraft, a thermal camera for finding water ingress, a few batteries. The insured value is therefore lower than on an industrial inspection, and the premium reflects that.

Watch the thermal camera, though. Many roofers and surveyors hire one for a single job. Hired equipment does not belong to the policyholder, and not every policy automatically treats it as declared equipment. The point is settled in one sentence when the policy is taken out, provided you think of it.

The certificate asked for by the managing agent or the surveyor

A roof survey is rarely done on your own initiative. The client is a building’s managing agent, a roofer, a surveyor appointed by an insurer, or an owner. All of them ask for proof that flying over their building is covered, and a managing agent takes on liability towards the co-owners by letting you work without having checked.

The certificate is asked for by email and goes out the same day. It carries the name of the office, your policy number and the sum insured.

Why two roofs are not priced alike

The flight environment dominates. A roof in a suburban street, with clearance on every side, is not judged like a roof giving onto a busy shopping street. The subcategory you work under expresses that difference, and it is the first thing the insurer looks at.

The number of jobs matters too: a roofer who flies fifteen times a year and a specialist contractor running surveys back to back do not present the same annual exposure.

Read more: where the line falls between A2 and A3, and what aviation third-party liability covers.

Checked on 9 September 2026. This page describes a common mission set-up and does not constitute legal advice.