Trouble with roofer, options?

AshleyC

AshleyC

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Ok so this guy came round in May to do some work on my roof. The roof is now leaking again in the same areas it was before that he supposedly fixed.

He's ignoring voicemails and emails and ignoring calls from my mobile, tried all morning yesterday to call him and just got voicemail. Tried my works phone within a minute of the last attempt and he picked up within a couple of rings .So , he's ignoring my calls. He said he would check out the emails I sent with photos and call back, obviously didn't

So if I got another roofer in to fix this clowns work and check over what else he did, what are the chances of getting the money back off him? Small claims? Debt collectors?

That's guy was picked off CheckATrade as well so it shows how useful that was! I'm preparing a suitably fruity review for him now. If nothing else I can put other victims off going near him.
 
Small claims will be your only option but before you go down that route you will need to show that you have given the current roofer the opportunity to resolve your issue.

I would write to him and post it recorded delivery, laying out all the issues and what you expect to be done about it. If there is no response to that then write another letter, this time a letter before action which basically says you will give him a further 7-14 days or else you will take him to court.

He may not be ignoring you, but just very busy. We're trying to get people round to ours to give some quotes on various jobs but can't seem to get anybody around for love nor money. They all say they are too busy.
 
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How much money are we talking about here?
Personally get another roofer in to sort the issue and then maybe look at recovering the amount.
I would rather get the roof fixed with the weather moving on than ponder over a few 100 quid.
As above, busiest part of the year with storms and heavy rain for roofers.
 
The original work was a couple of thousand. If this is just a couple of cracked or out of place tiles then it won't be a lot. But yeah, the plan is to get it sorted asap and try and recover later if he won't do it.
 
Trouble is, builders don't like small jobs. That is what a builder told me. Some builders do not like putting their work right, as some probably prefer using that time to earn new money. Wrong, but just might be true.
 
If he "bodged*" it up first time why are you looking at him to do it again? Get somebody else to do it, but look for some personal recommendations, not just stuff off the internet.

*Could be he did a good job and this is just another issue. As the OP has already alluded too.
 
Because I'm skint at the moment and he would have to sort it for free. I'm sure the claims court wouldn't look too favourably if I didn't at least give him the chance to sort it out first.
 
AshleyC said:
Because I'm skint at the moment and he would have to sort it for free. I'm sure the claims court wouldn't look too favourably if I didn't at least give him the chance to sort it out first.
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I wonder how long work / repairs / materials, are guaranteed for?
 
AshleyC said:
Because I'm skint at the moment and he would have to sort it for free. I'm sure the claims court wouldn't look too favourably if I didn't at least give him the chance to sort it out first.
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Sell a lens !

Seriously owning a house and being skint is a bad combination.
 
I sold all my gear for the deposit. I hate houses. :(
 
Having employed numerous building trades myself in the past, I have found roofers to be some of the most 'difficult' people I have dealt with - poor quality work, not turning up, not giving quotes etc.

Your roofer clearly has an obligation to repair your roof, it is evidently not 'fit for purpose' after only five (of the driest) months. Getting him back to do it is another matter entirely. Hopefully you have a written quote detailing the work he undertook for you.

I would contact check-a-trade initially and then put in writing to the roofer that he has so many days to respond to your request before you seek another tradesman. I think the small claims court would support you if you put everything in writing and give reasonable time frames, your priority is to make your roof water tight of course. His failure to respond will ultimately result in you successfully claiming against him in the small claims court. He still might not pay though and you could involve bailiffs etc.

The downside is that you will be out of pocket if you have to employ someone else but you should eventually recover the money. Better than water in the house though.

On another note, I had a bad experience with 'rated people.com' (rating: useless, incompetent and dishonest) and 'checkatrade' (using fictitious reviews and feedback). It seems to me that all good bona fide tradesman are pretty busy and don't register with those sort of websites. The tradesmen I've come across on the two sites mentioned have seemed second rate at best, although only a very small sample, I'm wary of them now.
 
got to agree with @Cartus on this we recently had our entire roof replaced on our very large terraced house and we went on to our local town facebook site and asked the question and had the 3x local roofers round, all provided the same quote pretty much with the almost identical price with a shrug of shoulders saying how busy they were.

We then went out of town a bit and spoke to a few people and went to see a few roofers work and settled on a guy up the road in wakefield.
We couldn't have had a better experience and at a lot less than the local crew.

I wont use any websites now at all all just personal recommendations.
 
Trouble is the average person can't get to the roof, to check on repairs done. Maybe some roofers bank on this.
 
If the leaking is causing damage inside then I'd be making him aware of that also. Take lots of photos from the inside if you can. Was it just slates/tiles that he changed or was it also insulation, sarking boards etc? In other words is it easy to see which bits he allegedly fixed? Different nails (copper etc). Then you can clearly demonstrate that it is his new work which is failing and also causing additional damage to the house.

Water is a real pain and roofs are the one thing that I won't go up and try myself so pretty reliant on a good roofer.
 
As I recall we used" Buy with confidence" and got 4 in to quote.

All came across well bar one.

Suffice to say job done as we were on site whilst they did it we saw their working practices etc and all good.

FWIW a local family run company.
 
If you're going to write to him go to the Post Office and ask for a certificate of postage rather than sending any demands or legal letters via recorded delivery - any cowboy worth his salt knows not to sign for recorded delivery and thus not receive the important document. A certificate of postage will be good enough to use in court and is deemed received 2 days after posting, even the police don't use recorded for speeding fines or S.172 requests for the same reasons.
My business is registered with "buy with confidence", which is administered by trading standards and I felt we were thoroughly vetted to get onto the scheme.
Checkatrade just wanted our cash to put us on, there are even a group of travellers/gypsies who frequent our area their vans all advertise roofing, fascia and guttering companies which claim to be registered with checkatrade.
 
Thanks for that. I haven't heard of that buy with confidence site before,just the two CheckATrade and trusted trader.

Anyway, he is still not doing anything about it. So I just sent him a message saying I won't try calling again but if you don't call back today the next people you will hear from are trading standards and ChechATrade wanting an explanation for the rotten review I'll post. Although that sounds like a waste of time now.

It looks like I'll have to get someone else in and chase him up in the small claims.
 
As mentioned above in my post #15 ~ my first port of call when looking for trades is Buy with Confidence. Apart from the roofer we employed we also found an electrician even longer ago.

AFAIK they have a strict getting and review structure with no axe to grind or payment to get listed???
 
Box Brownie said:
AFAIK they have a strict getting and review structure with no axe to grind or payment to get listed???
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No we do have to pay to be listed, it's cost me £250 for the year, but they offer excellent advice on what our and the customers legal rights are under the consumer credit act / S.O.G.A. whatever the current legislation is called.
They are very fair, even accepting that sometimes we have to deal with "Rogue Customers" (rather than Rogue traders) and what legal recourse is available..... usual advice is put it down to experience and move on.

Back to the roofer, the legal route will probably give you grey hairs and making threats etc. is great for keyboard warriors but not so good in real life ....but you may get his attention if you call in on any local building supplies firms he may use and ask if they have seen him about, as you can't get hold of him and have a problem with some work he's done for you. Word gets about and tradesmen don't like their peers taking the mick about shoddy workmanship.
 
Never heard of Buy with Confidence before. Just had a look for an Electrician as our local ones are far to busy to come and give me a quote.
The nearest Electrician is 78 miles away :( I suspect they won't be interested either.

Guess I'll have to do it myself.
 
Ah well, get this. After a solid week of ignoring my calls, emails and texts I give up and send a poor review to check a trade. I then get this from them just now.

"How embarrassingly petty of you leaving that review on checkatrade before I've even had a chance to take a look at the problem, I have contacted checkatrade to explain that to them.
I had cancelled a job i had booked in in London tomorrow to come and take a look at whatever the problem is.
Very Welldone "

Yes, like I believe that. Not sure when they were going to let me know they were coming tomorrow, and getting this a few minutes after check a trade had told them about the review.

Jokers. If I'm allowed to name them here I will.
 
I think personally i would have given it more than a week.
and the ebay feedback thing has probably slammed the door on any cooperation you will get.
dunno its an odd one
 
So did he visit and rectify the work?
 
No he didn't. I got someone else in yesterday to sort it out.
 
I would make your insurance company aware of the situation. My Aunts has sued on her behalf, due to the payout they had to make to her for a plumber whos 'repair' caused her living room ceiling to collapse. Her house insurer paid out a lot of money to fix the damaged caused by the so called plumber.
Also,
Try to find your local Trading Standards Dept (used to be the County Councils) if you can find one not slashed to death by the Conservatives money cuts.
 
All I want is a partial refund on his work. He clearly doesn't. But at the same time he knows my review on CheckATrade goes up on 7th Nov. So I'm reasonably sure he will see sense as that date nears.
 
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