homeowners please stop giving money to roofing contractors up front what you're doing is you're
opening yourself up to the possibility that your roofing contractor is going to collect
your money and then he's going to disappear now we just released a video about the most
common roofing scams and then last night I actually saw a news video from my city
about a roofer who's got a warrant out for his arrest and this is because he collected deposit
money from homeowners never did the work and then he just disappeared one of the creepiest parts of
the whole story is the fact that this roofer did that to the father of one of his own salesmen let
me show you the news video about this an arrest warrant for the owner of a local roofing company
after multiple clients say he took their money never did the work we're talking about felony
charges here accused of ripping off the most vulnerable news 5's Maggie Bryant spoke with
a victim and a former contractor who says the business owes his family more than nine thousand
dollars and so this this contractor that he's talking about who says that the roofer owes him
nine thousand dollars this was one of this this was one of the salesmen for this roofing company
he was brand new Aspen Roofing and exteriors used to operate out of this business space here
on North Academy Boulevard but now all that is left is a note from the sheriff's office after
a deputy tried serving the business legal papers now police say the co-owner is facing multiple
felonies and a warrant is out for his arrest after alleged theft from multiple clients so
these are felony charges I mean this just isn't petty theft this guy's facing time in a federal
prison for doing what he's done David Wolfram says last July he started a new job as a sales contract
okay so this guy that we're looking at here this is the guy who started working for the roofing
company as a Salesman as a sales contractor with Aspen Roofing and exteriors I was very excited
because I'd been looking for a job for months he says his father was his first client that is
the worst part of this whole story right dad is trying to help his son out get started with this
new job uh you know he's wanting to make sales so dad is trying to help him by letting him sell him
his first roof I said I'm going to see this through from start to finish that's what a
good contractor does Wolfram says during the two months he works for the company he never did see
a project completed so in two months working for this roofing company he said that they
didn't complete any projects in in two months after three weeks my customers were calling me
he says the work on his clients roofs including his father's never started and a warrant is now
out for the arrest of the company's co-owner Todd halaburka court documents show haliburka is facing
two felony charges for crimes against at-risk persons listing wolfram's mother and father
as two of the three victims the documents also reveal a bank account in the business's name had
a balance of one penny this is really important information they obtained his bank statements and
it showed that he had one penny okay there's some additional details in this that are that are going
to come out and just just a minute that are also important but here's why it's so critical that
you not give deposit money to a roofer up front and I'm going to clarify that in just a minute
because what happens oftentimes is roofers get themselves just in bad situations this roofer may
not have intended to commit felonies what happens what I see happen to roofers frequently is they're
essentially borrowing money from this job to pay off this job instead of taking all of the proceeds
from the job that they're doing to pay for those the costs of that job so you might have job a
and job B so this is where roofers get themselves in trouble they end up what's the cliche robbing
Peter to pay Paul is it legitimate that a roofer should be able to get a deposit for a job yes and
I'm going to explain how that should work for you as a homeowner in just a minute okay remember I
told you that there were some more details going to come out about what he was doing with his money
listen to this at the end of November last year the document shows between August and November
last year only two transactions were made at a home improvement store and says the rest of the
money was spent at restaurants grocery stores hair salons coffee houses a bar and more this
roofer was taking the money that customers were giving him and it's even worse right so I tried
to give the guy the benefit of the doubt saying that you know he was in over his head and using
money from this job to pay for stuff on this other job but no this guy is like the bottom
of the barrel it's it's kind of like when you turn over a rock and you see all those creepy
crawlies and they just scatter because the light has been exposed on them that's what this guy is
he was taking his customers money and going out and living large with it going and buying food
buying liquor tropical fish store getting his hair done the Secretary of State's office says
the roofing company voluntarily closed its doors on March 7th but the Wolfram family is
still fighting for their money back we're still chasing him down today and now without their
father who passed suddenly last September that's hard to hear so dad trying to help out his son
and then he dies in the midst of all of this as a widow and we were still trying to make touch base
with them Wolfram sister Dawn says their mother is now dealing with the stress of lost money and
a roof still needing to be fixed she's just been really heartbroken over it and just can't believe
anybody would do this to her we are trusting by our nature for the most part and we do find it
hard to believe that somebody would do something like this we tend to want to trust people who are
coming to to help us and to do work for us and no doubt that's why they gave them this money 9
over nine thousand dollars because they trusted the guy so I hate to say it but be cynical
we just want the money back to my family I want it back to my other customers
so that there's no harm no foul so he said something that's an important point right here he
wants not only the money back for his family but the other customers that he sold jobs to they're
out money too so this guy feels the weight of that responsibility David and his family say they still
hope to settle everything outside of court to get their money back if you think you are a victim of
Aspen Roofing and exteriors you can call Colorado Springs Police that's at 719-444-7000. all right
so I've talked a lot about homeowners not giving a roofing contractor money up front as a deposit
but is it valid for a roofing contractor to need to collect a deposit before starting a roofing job
absolutely but timing is everything so ideally if you're a homeowner working with a roofing
contractor the best thing to protect yourself is to tell the roofing contractor that you'll give
him a deposit check once you have materials on site if he tells you that he has to have a check
before that then you can tell him that you'll give him a check but he's not allowed to deposit that
into his general account until you have materials delivered to your property because the way that
it should work for a contractor is he should be able to have an account with a single supplier
so that he can buy those materials on account and pay for them later that facilitates him being able
to get the materials to you collect the money from you and then pay for those materials but if you're
dealing with a roofing contractor who is telling you that he needs money up front to be able to buy
the materials for your job that should be a big red flag because that might tell you that
that roofing contractor doesn't have a good enough reputation and his credibility isn't established
well enough with a local shingle supplier and therefore he may not have a line of credit with
any supplier and therefore that's why he wants you to give him money before he goes and buys
materials every credible roofing contractor is going to be able to order your materials
and even have those materials delivered to your property without having to collect money from
you I actually get a lot of grief from roofing contractors in response to my videos because
we've got a lot of videos out there where we tell homeowners don't give a roofing contractor money
up front and roofing contractors reply to me and they comment on my video saying I have to collect
money up front to be able to buy the materials I'm just saying roofers if that's the position
that you're in maybe you're not running your business the right way so homeowners Stop opening
yourselves up to be victims of dishonest roofing contractors and only give them the deposit money
that they're asking for once you have materials delivered to your property because that way then
if your roofer flakes out and disappears you've got materials that you've paid for and you can
hire a different roofer to do the labor now do you want to know what the other roofing scams
are that you need to watch out for if you're a homeowner click this video right up here