My roofer hasn't done his job correctly. 18 January at 9:17PM in Consumer rights 25 replies 889 views

ginger67

My issue is that I have a property that I am a landlord for that had leaking issues from the roof and the whole roof needed to be replaced. This was back in the summer of 2022.

 I hired a roofer to do this job and he charged just under 10k. They basically replaced the entire roof and ensured me things were okay. 

He wrote me a digital invoice and on it - it said 10 year guarantee. 

However now there is a new leak in the roof and the water has come and damaged the inside walls of the property. 

However, now there is a leak and the inside walls are damaged too. The white paint has gone chalky and chipped off and the water has gone through both the upstairs and downstairs rooms. 

He is due to fix the leak in the property, however even after this is fixed,  I think I should be entitled to compensation as the walls need to be painted and repaired and this will cost me money and right now I am trying my best to reduce expenses. 

I am just wondering, even if he fixes his mistake (the leak) but he refuses to compensate me for the damage to the walls - what are my rights and what can I do? As this is an independent, family company- they are small and I don’t think have a formal complaints procedure. 

In addition -  I called him on the phone  and I calmly explained what happened to this new leak  and he basically tried to say the new leak was not his doing and then he started shouting at me. I am a young woman and I felt quite intimidated by him and couldn’t understand why he was shouting and yelling at me when I was being so calm. This is something that hasn’t really happened to me before, especially when I am not in the wrong and the wrongdoing is from him and his lack of care when carrying out his job. 

I know I have consumer rights (2015 act) and I know for sure it is his lack of care and poor workmanship that has caused this issue. In addition, being yelled at and shouted at is quite scary for me and although I can’t prove it - I have a feeling he doesn’t respect me as I’m young and I’ve always been very polite to him in messages and phone calls. I may be wrong here, but it’s just a feeling I have. 

I am quite anxious about this so any help would be appreciated. I feel worried everytime I have to text/call him and I don't think what he is doing is fair. 

Thank you. 

Lomast

How do you know the leak was his mistake rather than say a tile being blown off in the recent weather?
Also as this is a house you rent out I am not sure that you do have consumer rights as its a business to business transaction

Aylesbury_Duck

As above, you need to establish the cause of the leak before you do anything else.  And I agree that as a landlord, I'm not sure that you do have consumer rights behind you.

HillStreetBlues

https://www.rocketlawyer.com/gb/en/blog/consumer-law-apply-landlords/#:~:text=Not many landlords would typically,in some form or another.

At the bottom of the page

Landlords, take note…

In order to exercise your rights in relation to your letting agent, you would have to be trading as an individual person. This is because any activity or transactions done through a company would be considered a business transaction or B2B. You would not be considered a consumer which means that the consumer rights wouldn’t apply to you.

So looks like an individual person is treated as a consumer.

ginger67

Thank you everyone for your comments/messages. 
Just some further questions regarding what was mentioned:

1) Source of leak problem - after initially messaging the roofer himself - he went to have a look at the problem. He mentioned the source of the leak was due to a chimney that was not in use that I had paid initially to have it taken care of. On the invoice even it mentions how I have paid extra for this issue to be sorted. 

So the only explanation would be that the roofer made this mistake or simply did not pay enough attention. There was also an instance 2 weeks after the roof was completed where there was a problem with the gutters leaking and they again had to come and fix it - so unfortunately this isn't the first time we've had an issue.

I totally understand mistakes can happen and no job is perfect   - however the problem for me is them not thinking it's their problem to fix this and also fix any damages they have caused as a result (paint chipping inside the property etc). 
There was no tile falling off or anything like that however even then my 10 year guarantee would come into effect as if a roofing job was well done, the tiles shouldn't be easily falling off just a few months after completion. 

2) So I am renting out this property but this is my only property that I'm the landlord for - I am not registered or trading as a business and I don't have any other properties where I have tenants. Renting this house out was just simply because I had to move away from this city as I had a job in another city (I couldn't sell the house at the time as was taking too long and several other reasons) - and being a landlord is not my main job/source of income. Wouldn't this make me a private landlord?  One day, I may live in this property again myself. So does this still not give me consumer rights if I paid for this roofers services for a property that I may live in again myself? Just wondering. 

Thanks again!  @HillStreetBlues@Aylesbury_Duck@Lomast

HillStreetBlues

If it is the chimney issue and they knew and charged for it  then I would say it's a breach of contract.
They should cover reasonable costs that you incurred because of that breach.
What method of payment did you  use?

Aylesbury_Duck

I agree with the above.  As to the consumer status, I don't think you qualify as a consumer.  You're still a landlord, no matter how temporary that is or the reasons for it.  Presumably you declare the income to HMRC?

HillStreetBlues

Hopefully a there is a LL  who knows about this.
HMRC won't class the OP as self employed and doesn't have to pay NI stamps, so as far as HMRC s concerned it's not a business.
So if OP does go down the consumer route,  how would any objections be raised and proved?

This is just my very non-expert view

born_again

ginger67 said:

Thank you everyone for your comments/messages. 
Just some further questions regarding what was mentioned:

1) Source of leak problem - after initially messaging the roofer himself - he went to have a look at the problem. He mentioned the source of the leak was due to a chimney that was not in use that I had paid initially to have it taken care of. On the invoice even it mentions how I have paid extra for this issue to be sorted. 

So the only explanation would be that the roofer made this mistake or simply did not pay enough attention. There was also an instance 2 weeks after the roof was completed where there was a problem with the gutters leaking and they again had to come and fix it - so unfortunately this isn't the first time we've had an issue.

I totally understand mistakes can happen and no job is perfect   - however the problem for me is them not thinking it's their problem to fix this and also fix any damages they have caused as a result (paint chipping inside the property etc). 
There was no tile falling off or anything like that however even then my 10 year guarantee would come into effect as if a roofing job was well done, the tiles shouldn't be easily falling off just a few months after completion. 

2) So I am renting out this property but this is my only property that I'm the landlord for - I am not registered or trading as a business and I don't have any other properties where I have tenants. Renting this house out was just simply because I had to move away from this city as I had a job in another city (I couldn't sell the house at the time as was taking too long and several other reasons) - and being a landlord is not my main job/source of income. Wouldn't this make me a private landlord?  One day, I may live in this property again myself. So does this still not give me consumer rights if I paid for this roofers services for a property that I may live in again myself? Just wondering. 

Thanks again!  @HillStreetBlues@Aylesbury_Duck@Lomast

You would need to check the T/C of this Guarantee. To see exactly what it covers.

Aylesbury_Duck

HillStreetBlues said:

Hopefully a there is a LL  who knows about this.
HMRC won't class the OP as self employed and doesn't have to pay NI stamps, so as far as HMRC s concerned it's not a business.
So if OP does go down the consumer route,  how would any objections be raised and proved?

This is just my very non-expert view

I thought the same, but I assume the trader knows OP is a landlord, so OP's attempted use of the CRA might be met with a shrug.

m0bov

Given the large amount of money, I'd get a paid for inspection done by a surveyor to see if the roof was done correctly. Get a quote for the interior and claim from him for that.