8 Scams EVERY Homeowner Should Know About The Roofing Industry

Hey Folks!

Zach Brown here, haven't posted in over a year so that's why I included the introduceyourself tag. If you remember me from last year, I did a lot of posting about my urban agriculture business, Brown's Greens. We have shut down for this year, hence the not posting, BECAUSE I got a pretty sweet job elsewhere..... in the roofing industry! I plan to return to gardening and landscaping in 2019, but there is good money in roofing and I'm sticking with it for now. I am a project manager for Homestead Roofing in Colorado Springs, I do everything from inspections to estimates to invoicing to cold calling to etc. I have learned a LOT in my year doing this and I've seen some pretty crazy things that so-called roofing "contractors" do to make an extra buck and/or rip off homeowners. Homestead Roofing tries to operate as honestly and legally as possible, and we do a lot of education about the common ways homeowners get taken advantage of by roofers. In Colorado Springs, we get a lot of scam roofers who blow into town when a big hail or windstorm hits our city and overwhelms the local contractors. They come, they rip off, they leave. It's awful. SO! I have compiled a list of 10 dirty secrets of the roofing industry that every homeowner should know before hiring a roofer. This list may not apply to roofers everywhere because local codes and regulations differ from city to city, state to state, but most of them should apply to everyone.

• “Inexperienced Inspectors”
  Unethical roofing companies often hire random guys off the street to do their roof inspections, folks with no experience or knowledge about how to inspect for storm damage. These “warm bodies” are told to go knock on doors, get on roofs, and try to get as many insurance claims filed as possible in hopes to also get contracts signed for re-roofs. Often these inexperienced inspectors can cost the homeowner a lot of money because they suggest filing a claim when there is not sufficient damage for a re-roof, and the homeowner can end up with a “zero-pay claim” which goes on their insurance record and may raise their premiums/prevent them from purchasing a better plan with a different insurance company.

• “The Homeowner Must Sign A Form Before The Inspector Gets On The Roof”
  Some of the trickiest roofing companies will require the homeowner to sign a “permission” form before the inspector gets on their roof. You as the homeowner may think that you are signing this to give the roofer permission to inspect, when in fact, you may have just signed his contract which states that IF you file a claim and IF an adjuster accepts the claim, you MUST use this roofer's company to have the work done. This is purely an intimidation tactic designed to make you feel locked in, because if you say that you will use a different roofer, or use no roofer at all, the "roofing contractor" company will threaten to sue you and charge you hefty fees.

• The “Deductible Assistance Program” Or “Referral Reward Program”
  This one sounds so nice and so helpful, but in Colorado it’s actually illegal. A lot of roofing companies used to offer insurance deductible assistance, and some still do. The problem is that as of June 6th, 2012, this is considered insurance fraud (in accordance with Colorado Senate Bill 12-038). Some roofers have what they call a “Referral Reward Program,” such that if you give them the name of a neighbor or friend who needs a roof, they'll give you $1000 or more for that referral. That's gaming the system. It’s unethical, and it could get both the homeowner and the contractor in a lot of trouble. I would highly suggest looking up your local roofing codes to find out if it is illegal or not in your area.

• “Having The Homeowner Pull The Permit”
  If you ever hear a door-to-door roofer tell you that his/her company will do the work needed on your roof, but he needs you to pull the permit with the regional building department, the most probable reason for this is that he isn’t a licensed roofer. For obvious reasons, you don’t want an unlicensed roofer fooling around on your roof. So never pull a permit for a roofing contractor to do any work on your property.

• “Roofer Says They Need To Collect A Deposit Check Up-Front…”
  This is another one that roofers are still doing even though it has been ruled illegal in Colorado. SB 12-038 governs that roofers are not allowed to collect money up front from their customers. Too many people have been ripped off – deposits were being collected by roofers but work was not being completed. Two years ago, one “roofer” collected over $500,000 and then disappeared! The law does make allowance for a roofer to collect a material deposit, but that money can not be collected until the roofing materials have been delivered to the property. If it’s collected prior to the material delivery, it must be held, and not deposited into the roofer’s account until material is delivered.

• “Roofer Says They Are Fully Insured”
  The number 1 question you should be asking any roofer (or any contractor for that matter) is, “Do you have general liability AND workmen’s comp insurance”?
  Currently in Colorado, if a contractor has no employees, he/she is not required to have workmen’s comp insurance, only general liability insurance. Many, if not most roofing contractors will use subcontractors as the labor for the various tasks required to re-roof a house, but what about the salesmen and inspectors they use? Believe it or not, to get around the requirement to have workmen’s comp insurance, which is expensive, roofing contractors also make their sales team subcontractors. This enables them to avoid having to buy expensive insurance and allows them to meet the insurance requirements of the building department, and thereby they claim they are “fully” insured.
  The best way for you to verify the insurance your contractor has is to ask him to provide you with a copy of his insurance certificates for both insurance types. You want to be specific when asking for this, however, because an unscrupulous contractor could easily fake these certificates. Therefore, you should ask him to have his insurance agent Email or mail you a copy of the certificates. This will prevent you from getting any fake insurance certificates.

• “Faking Hail Damage”
  Believe it or not, some roofers will actually intentionally damage your roof in order to win an insurance claim for replacing your roof. We have heard stories of roofers doing this by pressing and spinning sharp objects or coins on the shingles to create “hail” marks, or wearing shoes with sharp spikes or objects on the bottom of them while they inspect the roof. We’ve even heard of them just pounding shingles with a hammer if the homeowners aren’t home during the inspection. It is extremely important to actually meet your roofer if he/she comes to inspect your roof, and if possible, watch him while he’s up there to make sure he’s not doing anything suspicious.

• “Simply Not Doing The Work They Said They Would”
  This one is easy for roofers to do. There are a lot of components to a roof, and nearly all of them cannot be seen from the ground. Some of them can’t even be seen when you are standing ON the roof! Most homeowners don’t even look at their roof until they find out it needs replacement or they have a leak. It’s just not a component of the house many people think about. So that gives scam roofers a lot of power when it comes to re-roofing because they can throw a bunch of fancy roofing terms at you and make you think that they are going to do a great job, but then they may use cheap materials when they promised quality ones, or they may re-use damaged materials when they said they’d replace them. Now, homeowners have some protection against this because regional building departments always inspect roofs after they have been replaced and they can catch badly installed items. But like I said, there are components of a roof, such as underlayment, some flashings, decking, and other weatherproofing items that can’t be seen once a roof is finished. So once again, it is important that you watch your roofers while they are installing your new roof to make sure they are doing what they said they would.

I hope this is valuable knowledge for you all. The roofing industry is pretty cut-throat and I haven’t loved my time in it, but I like to think the knowledge I have gained from it can be useful to lots of folks. Thanks so much for reading, I’ll post again soon!