I've paid a roofer for work not completed, advice needed please

Sarah9132

Hi, 

I received a quote by text from a roofer for £2,500 to complete repair work on my roof. He told me the work would start at the end of August and asked for a £1,000 deposit. 

I paid the deposit. He was late starting the work but scaffolding did go up and he appeared to be doing some work to the roof. 

He asked for further payments in advance which he said were to cover his expenses. The amounts requested varied. In total I have paid £3,250 as he gave me a verbal quote to do some additional work. He informed me the work was almost complete, although he had been unreliable with when he would turn up for work and he wasn't doing full days. 

I paid the money as i thought the work was almost complete. The roofer is no longer returning my calls. The scaffolding is still up but my roof is leaking. I have had two other roofers out to quote me for completing the remaining work. They have both informed me that the work i was told had been completed has not been done and that the work that has been completed has been done to a poor standard. 

I have contacted the initial roofer to ask for my money back but he is no longer responding to me and it has been over a month of no contact. 

Can anyone offer any advice on how i should proceed or if I would be able to recover the money from my bank?

 

elsien

What are the details you have for him other than a mobile number?

ThisIsWeird

So many questions, Sarah.
Where did you find this roofer? What is his reputation? Why did you choose him? Does he belong to any regulating body? Did you have others quoting for the work too? What information did he give you about your roof? Does your local Trading Standards Dept in your LA know about him? How did you communicate with him? How did you pay him?
And do you have Legal Protection in your house insurance?
And what - exactly - did the other two roofers say about the work still required? And about the work already carried out?
Certainly contact Trading Standards and see if they know about him.

Section62

Sarah9132 said:

I paid the money as i thought the work was almost complete. The roofer is no longer returning my calls. The scaffolding is still up but my roof is leaking. I have had two other roofers out to quote me for completing the remaining work. They have both informed me that the work i was told had been completed has not been done and that the work that has been completed has been done to a poor standard. 

I have contacted the initial roofer to ask for my money back but he is no longer responding to me and it has been over a month of no contact. 

1) Can you afford to pay one of the new roofers?

2) Are they available to start immediately, or very soon?

3) Would they be willing to work on the existing scaffolding?

If so, it it were me I would bite the bullet and get one of them in to finish the work off.  In an ideal world you would go through the process of giving the other roofer opportunities to come back to complete the work, but after a month with no contact it sounds like they won't be coming back, and if the other roofers are correct then the quality of his work means you probably don't want him back.

The priority now is making your home weatherproof as soon as possible (especially given the time of year) because rainwater (and wind) could do further damage.  If one of the other roofers can start soon and would be willing to use the scaffolding then this would at least save you the cost of getting a second scaffold put up.

I'd be inclined to do this without any further contact with the first roofer as alerting him to your plan to use someone else might prompt him to get the scaffolding taken down asap.  If the scaffold was supplied by a third party company then there is also a possibility they are waiting for payment from him - and if so may come out and make the scaffold unsafe to use (legally) until they get paid.

You may get advice about your rights and maybe teaching the roofer a lesson.  But there isn't much to be said for having rights etc if the rain is coming in through your roof and doing further damage... you need to prioritise doing the things that will minimise your overall loss, even if that might be a bitter pill to swallow.

ThisIsWeird

Good point. 

I think, with complete justification, you can state that all trust with the original roofer has been lost due to the poor quality of their work and the fact that they haven't been contactable; you are therefore entitled to refuse to have them back to complete the work, should they suddenly offer/insist on doing this.

On this point, you will also need a good description of the new roofers' evaluation of the quality of the existing work, along with photos, before they fix it. You need good 'evidence' for successful action.

In anticipation of possibly having to rebuff the original fellow should they get in touch, and also hopefully take successful action against them to recover what you've paid out, I'd also start to put together a clear timeline of what took place, referring to any written info you have - you want a clear log of what happened, and when, because you will be asked this at some point when you take action. Eg;

1) 3rd Aug - Contacted X roofer, and asked for quote to repair leak on roof.

2) 6th Aug - MrX attended, examined the roof, told me what was needed ("He said...") and followed this up with a quote via text/email/letter whatevs. (Document 1)

3) etc etc.

10) 13th Oct Tried to contact Mr X by phone. Phone went to answering machine. Left message. 

11) 15th Oct Tried again... Sent follow-up text (Doc 2)

And... do you have LegProt?

MysteryMe

The priority is to get the roof sorted, I'm afraid from what you have said and what the other roofers have said you have been taken for a ride.

Good advice regarding evidencing the work done by the original roofer.

How did you pay

Do you have anything other than a mobile number on this roofer? Where did you find him.