If you are a homeowner working with a roofing contractor, this ONE THING will open you up to the possibility that you will lose thousands of dollars in a roofing scam.
In this post I'm going to explain the most common roofing scam and how so many homeowners fall victim to it.
Recently there was a news story in my city about a roofer who has a warrant out for his arrest, and this is because he collected deposit money from homeowners but never did the work, and then he just disappeared. This roofing contractor isn't just facing misdemeanor charges, but the authorities are looking to arrest him on felony charges for crimes against at-risk persons.
One of the worst parts of the whole story is the fact that one of the victims of this contractor was the father of one of the roofing contractor's own salesmen.
Aside from the money that this contractor stole from other homeowners his salesmen's father paid the contractor over $9000 and he'll probably never see that money again.
The salesman for the roofing company was brand new and his father was his first customer. So his dad was trying to help his son get started with his new job selling roofs to homeowners and ended up getting fleeced for over $9000.
This is the most common, and costly roofing scam
A homeowner gives a roofing contractor money up front and then the contractor disappears and never does the work.
You might be working with a contractor who has told you that he needs you to give him a deposit check so that he can buy materials. Most homeowners will consider that a reasonable request, but here's why you should never do that.
Oftentimes roofers get themselves in bad situations because they're trying to pay off costs of one job by collecting money from a different job. instead of using all the proceeds from "job A" to pay for the costs of "job A," they collect money from "job B" to pay the costs of "job A."
It's the classic example of robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Some times, however, the roofer is more malicious and his reasons for stealing the money have less to do with mismanagement and more to do with a criminal mind.
We're normally trusting by nature...
Homeowners want to trust the contractors that they've hired and they tend to find it hard to believe that's somebody would do something like this to them.
I've published a lot of videos and written a lot of articles warning homeowners to not give roofing contractors money up-front as a deposit. But is it valid for roofing contractor to collect a deposit before starting a roofing job?
Absolutely! But timing is everything!
Ideally, if you're working with a roofing contractor, the best way to protect yourself is to tell the roofing contractor that you will happily give him a deposit check once you have materials on your property.
If he tells you that he has to have a check before that then you can tell him that you will give him a check but he's not allowed to deposit that into his general account until you have materials delivered to your property.
If you do it this way you protect yourself because if your roofing contractor flakes out on you and doesn't come to do the work but you actually have the materials that you have paid for, you can hire a different roofer to do the labor if you need to.
Any contractor who is credible and has a good reputation should be able to purchase materials add a supplier and do that on account. That way he can have the materials delivered to your property then collect the money from you, and then pay the supplier for it.
If you have a contractor who's telling you that he needs you to give him money so he can buy materials, that should be a big red flag for you. That might tip you off that the roofer doesn't have enough credit, credibility, or a good enough reputation with a local shingle supplier. Is that the kind of company you want working on your house?
Every credible and professional roofing contractor will be able to get materials delivered to your house without having to collect money from you.
So homeowners, stop opening yourselves up to be the 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.