The friendly guy who’s knocking on your door offering to fix the hail damage on your roof might not have your best interests at heart.
Regular users of the Rosie on the House Web site and listeners of the radio show already know the common bait lines they’ve heard Rosie and Romey warn of in the past.
Examples:
- “I just finished your neighbor’s house and have some leftover material”
- “If you let us start today, we can save you X amount off your total price”
- “You better let us take care of this before the next storm comes and floods your whole house because your roof can’t keep the water out.”
They probably put a little pressure on you to let them do the job right then. And they almost certainly asked for at least part of their money up front, without a contract.
Those guys knocking at your door are called storm chasers, travelers or gypsies. They are usually unlicensed, from out of state, and they make their living by driving from state to state, depending which one has had a big storm lately. Storm chasers prey on homeowners who have trouble after bad weather getting a local, qualified roofing contractor out to the house because the good ones are so booked up with jobs since the storm hit.
If it’s insurance or warranty work, don’t let anyone convince you to sign on for an inflated price with the promise that the contractor will overbill your insurance company to get enough money back to reimburse you for your deductible. That’s insurance fraud. Some will offer to pay you $1,000 to let them put a sign in your yard, and then they try to get your insurance company to cover that fee. Insurance companies will not pay an outrageous price for the work. Likewise, never show the roofer the estimate from your insurance adjuster. A dishonest contractor will simply duplicate that estimate without evaluating the damage and working up a true price.
Professional local roofing contractors make appointments with their customers—and those appointments are initiated by you, the homeowner. They will send someone to your house wearing a logo shirt and driving a truck with another logo on it and with Arizona license tags. They’ll climb up on the roof and survey the damage, and when they come down, they’ll give you a written estimate or send you one shortly. Then, you can call the company and make an appointment to have the work done.
ROSIE’S ADVICE: Wait for your regular contractor, even if you have to wait for a couple of months.
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