Roofing contractor threatening to invalidate my roof warranty

ChrisDB56

Hello all.

In March 13 I had the house re-roofed and have a 20-year warranty. In early 2019 it took said Company 4 months to perform some repairs where the ridge tile mortar was coming out and falling onto the drive. This repair only happened after countless visits by me to their office, phone calls, emails and finally a threat to get the work done elsewhere and sue through the small claims court.

There is now another problem with – according to the Company – porous brickwork. 2 months after their ground based assessment and still no sign of them getting up on the roof to survey (which they confirmed in writing they would do) I got another local contractor to go up and take a video for me. It’s very clear from that that the rest of the ridge tiles are now loose. I sent the video to the original contractor who advises “It is also common practice that if any other contractor accesses the roof (XXX Roofing’s) guarantee would be null and void”.

They have “graciously” backed off from this however what they don’t know yet is that the reason the other local contractor was up on the roof is because I have been collecting quotes to have all the rainworks (gutters, fascias, soffits etc) replaced. Because of their appalling customer service I have no intention of inviting the original contractor to quote for the rainworks job but I am now concerned that if I engage someone else that will allow the original contractor to cancel my warranty.

If you have stayed with this and read it all the way through I sincerely thank you - and any advice would be gratefully received?

TELLIT01

There wouldn't appear to be any valid reason to cancel the warranty.  The other contractor hasn't done any work to the roof.

David713

TELLIT01 said:

There wouldn't appear to be any valid reason to cancel the warranty.  The other contractor hasn't done any work to the roof.

If what the OP was told is in the T&C's of the warranty:

ChrisDB56 said:

“It is also common practice that if any other contractor accesses the roof (XXX Roofing’s) guarantee would be null and void”.

then all the other contractor needed to do was to be on the roof and this would be enough to invalidate the warranty and as a warranty isn't a legal right, they would be entitled to have such a term stated.
This however doesn't detract from the OP's statutory rights regarding the faults with their roof.

Mistral001

It was a mistake to tell the original contractor that another contractor took the pictures.  It is like a red rag to a bull.  In fact most reputable contractors would not want to take the photos if they thought that their use was "evidence" to be used against another contractor.  The original contractor should be given the opportunity to fix any problems.  He is annoyed with you for getting another contractor involved in what is his job even if it was only to take pictures, so i am not surprised  he is dragging his heels on looking into the problem.  Be persistent with him.  If you you panic and get another contractor to do the work and then send him the bill, he might be on the right side of the law if he refused to pay it.  

ChrisDB56

Thanks all. I did think of telling the original contractor I took the video myself but naively didn't see the point in telling lies. My frustration got the better of me as this is the 2nd warranty claim they are really stalling on however the advice "be persistent with him" is good advice so I think I will go and knock on their door for a chat. I'm still not happy about inviting them to quote for the guttering although I can see how having that work done by somebody else could invalidate the warranty so I really need to think that one through. I'm nowhere near at the minute thinking of legal action but there are absolutely no Ts & Cs with any of their paperwork including the warranty, and their website is offline.

Jeepers_Creepers

Chris.

Is their 20-year warranty worth the paper it's written on? Is it insurance-backed, for example? Is it written with proper terms and guarantees against faulty materials and workmanship? Or is it just a slip that says 'J Bloggs warrants this roof for 20 years'?

I presume it's the former - in which case they cannot reasonably 'null' it because someone else got to within 6 feet of 'their' roof. The twits.

What lousy customer service. What a pathetic attitude. What a feeble attempt at a ridiculous threat.

Assuming your warranty is more water-tight than your ridge tiles, you can become bolshie if you like - but it's best probably not to. You could, for example, give them a reasonable time to sort out the rest - I dunno, 4 weeks? - whereupon you tell them you will get someone else to do it and sue them for the cost. If you do this the proper way, you will win. You could even simply tell them you could do that if you felt like it, so cut out the 'nulling' BS.

Other than a poor cement mix (I presume), was the rest of their work ok? Would you have gone to them first for the gutters and stuff if not for this?

You need to weigh up the pros and cons, and make a decision. You can - for the sake of peace - just let it drag on, and even ask them to quote for the gutters too. Or you can use the gutters as a carrot - you'll be happy to let them quote for this, but they really need to sort the ridge tiles first, and they have X weeks. Or you tell them they've now lost out on the other work, and you will be taking legal advice on the repair to the ridge tiles. And don't DARE threaten to void the warranty or you'll take the matter straight to Trading Standards - and Facebook.

Your call.

But, to answer your Q, if it's a proper warranty, they cannot void it just because someone else has taken a video of the roof or will replace the soffits & guttering. If someone else were to work on the actual roof, that could be a different matter - more a 'murky' matter, where two groups could end up blaming the other.

ChrisDB56

Another great piece of advice Jeepers_Creepers, thank you. It sounds like you were sat with whilst we were eating just now as wew were having the same sort of conversation . No, the guarantee is the latter, the Joe Bloggs option sadly,  so right now we risk losing about 13 years of  possibly meaningless guarantee anyway - on what has been a crap job to date, against trying to tempt them with the gutters etc. So I think the next step is the carrot option.

Jeepers_Creepers

I presume you at least have invoices for the work? Ie - you can prove they did the job, what was involved and how much you paid? In which case you should be covered.

Even without a warranty, how long should a new roof last without issues? What is reasonable, what is satisfactory quality?

Mortar falling out after seven years patently isn't; it should last a lot longer than that without issue. I suspect you could pursue this legally if you wished, but you need proper advice.

Do you have Legal Protection on your house insurance? You do?! Cool - call them up for advice (just advice at this stage) - explain the situation, and ask them where you stand.