Mr De Angelis, 84, wants his entire roof replaced, but his insurance company GIO has only promised to replace the individually-damaged tiles.

His building consultant, George Ziade, said only a new roof would prevent leaks when the next heavy rain fell.

Mr De Angelis's command of

English is weak, so his son-in-law, Adrian Murer, has acted as his interpreter.

Mr Murer said he was angry with GIO for not making temporary repairs after the storm and for the way it has treated his father-in-law.

``I did emergency repairs myself, after the storm, even though I'm not trained to go on a roof,'' he said.

``I was patching the roof with a number of tiles left over from when he did the house insulation, working up there until 9.30 at night.''

Mr Murer accused the insurance company of breaching its own stated goal treating clients sympathetically.

``My father-in-law is 84, he's not sleeping and every time it rains he rings us up to make sure everything is all right,'' he said. ``All GIO give us are product description statements.

``Sympathy? Rubbish!''

A GIO spokesman said the company was only complying with its own insurance policy and disputed that Mr De Angelis's entire roof needed to be replaced.