The insurance company Admiral has apologised to an Okehampton resident for initially refusing his claim after a storm blew the roof off his outbuilding last month.

John Kalli called the insurer after strong winds last month ripped the roof off his outbuilding, damaged electrical wires, and cut off power to his water system. However, the company denied the claim, stating that the wind speeds were not high enough to meet the policy conditions, and refused to send an electrician for emergency repairs, despite live wires having come loose in the wind.

He said: “It ripped apart the wood beams and took the top part of the building off, and it flew across the main road into the field. They refused to come out and make it safe, even though I explained there were live wires flying around in the road.

“I had to get out an emergency electrician to make the building safe and to restore power to my water system to allow us to have water. Bearing in mind, we have the policy which should give us emergency cover. They refused to come out, stating we were not covered.

“Obviously this lack of initial help caused us a lot more stress than we needed at the time. I don’t understand how weather forecasts can determine whether you can claim or not, when you can see from the damage quite clearly what’s happened.”

But Admiral has now admitted the claim was initially refused after delays in its weather-tracking system meant the correct conditions were not identified at the time. The insurance company told this newspaper that when Mr Kalli first made his claim, the weather-monitoring software had not registered a storm in the area. Later in the day, the program updated to show that Okehampton had experienced winds of up to 52mph, hitting the threshold for a storm claim. A supplier was then called out to inspect and validate the damage but initially raised concerns that the outbuilding was not covered.

A spokesperson for Admiral said: “We’ve thoroughly investigated Mr Kalli’s home insurance claim and we would agree that there have been unacceptable delays and poor communication when dealing with this case, for which we are very sorry. We appreciate that this must be a stressful time for him and his wife.

“We take customer complaints seriously and we have spoken with Mr Kalli to ensure we put things right for him.

“We always try to provide an excellent service to our customers and deal with any household claims quickly and efficiently. We completely agree that this hasn’t been the case on this occasion and Mr Kalli has had a poor experience.”

Admiral has confirmed that Mr Kalli’s policy did cover his outbuildings and is now settling his claim. The company added that Mr Kalli was entitled to emergency repairs and will cover their cost. It has submitted feedback to the weather-monitoring system supplier, requesting improvements to update times.