Hi everybody! This is Tracy Bookman owner of Homestead Roofing and welcome to today's
weekly walk in the park where we take three minutes to answer your questions
about roof repairs, roof replacements, and the insurance claim process. And today
we're gonna answer your question I think my roofer is trying to rip me off what
do I do now?
Yesterday I got a phone call from a guy who lives in a different city here in
Colorado and he had seen some of our weekly walk in the park videos and had
some concerns. So he called me and told me that the roofer that he had hired is
not doing things that make him very comfortable. The roofer is violating the
law Colorado SB 38 has collected a very sizeable deposit up front from the
homeowner without having materials on the property and then he had a huge list
of other complaints about this roofer all of which has made him very
uncomfortable about having the roofer do his re-roof project. Understandably if
you knew all of the complaints that this homeowner had you would feel
uncomfortable too. So his question to me was well what do I do now? I've already
signed a contract with this guy and I've given him a very sizable amount of money
what now? As I see it a homeowner in that situation really has two options. Option
number one would be you move forward. You have the guy do the roof as has been
written in the contract. Make sure that you read the contract and understand the
terms of it so that you can hold the contractor accountable after the job if
there are any issues. I would strongly recommend if you move forward with using
that contractor that you find an objective third party who can be on site
while the project is occurring doesn't have to be eight hours a day for the
whole duration but to just drop in and check on the job see how they're doing
see if they're doing it correctly see if they're following codes see if they're
cutting any corners see if they're using shoddy material make sure that they're
using the material that you agreed to in the contract. And then that person should
give you a report. Option number two is a more uncomfortable option most people
don't have the stomach for it but hire a lawyer and try to get out of the contract.
You have to have your ducks in a row. You've got to make sure that you've got
conversations with the contractor recorded. You've got to make sure that
you have things in writing. You've got to have photographs. You've got to have
evidence to support your case for getting out of the contract so that way
you don't get sued by the contracter. But another question that kind of comes up
from that is how do you avoid getting in that situation in the first place? Well
you can do things like check their reviews online check the
the BBB that kind of stuff but that often times that doesn't really tell you
what you want to know. Number one thing make sure that you read the contract
before you sign it. You've got to understand all the terms
and conditions if there's anything in there that's confusing have somebody who
knows about contractual law read it and help you interpret it. Number two never
never never give a roofing contractor money until materials are actually at
your property. That's actually part of Colorado state law SB 38 you can go
online and check that out. Another thing that you can do is ask for references
talk to five or six people who that person has worked for in the past and
find out how things went. Find out how they liked the contractor
find out if there were any problems and how they were resolved. Those are just a
few tips among many. The the bottom line is you've got to do your homework. If- how
would I put it? Go with your gut feel that's really important. If your gut feel
is telling you there's something wrong go with that don't ignore that gut feel.
Sorry I couldn't give you more information about this topic I know it's
a huge topic there's lots and lots of information about this watch through our
other videos there's lots of information that pertain to this particular topic.
But we try to keep these videos fairly short so I just can't go through
everything. If you've got any questions feel free to give our office a call
right up here 719.433.6991 you can also
visit our website right down here HomesteadRoofingColorado.com. We've
got a ton of information out there other videos lots of tips education for
homeowners to hopefully help you avoid becoming a victim of a unscrupulous
roofer. If you like this video please give us a thumbs up leave a comment down
below. Let us know what questions you have that you'd like us to answer on our
weekly series. Be sure to subscribe and click the little bell button so that you
get notified when we have new videos and in the meantime, I'm Tracy Bookman owner
of Homestead Roofing and we'll see you on our next weekly walk in the park.