After a heavy storm or otherwise, the urgency to repair your roof is what roof scammers bank on before starting their scamming journey. The roof scammers are always looking for senior citizens, low-income citizens, and impatient homeowners who need their roofs fixed as soon as possible. Once the scammers convince you that your roof needs urgent repair, their next line of action would be to dupe you of your money or do substandard work and run away with the remaining money. Know Contractor problems from different roofers in Albuquerque
So, for your sake, we have researched and come up with some popular schemes used by these roof scammers and how to spot them, so, read on to be better informed and avoid getting scammed.
5 types of roofing scam and how to avoid them
Storm chasers
These types of scammers start their scheming after a heavy downpour or rainstorm. Storm chasers drive around a community, moving from door to door and suggesting that your roof needs some urgent repair or replacement. Most times, they are right. However, we call these house-call roof professionals, scammers, because the real professionals are usually too busy to move around and beg to work for you.
After these storm chasers have convinced many homeowners to hire them to fix their roofs, they go-ahead to do a hasty job in their quest to carry out as many repairs and replacements as possible. And like cheap and fake things, your roof will look like a pretty plastic doll for the first few weeks or months, after which things start to fall apart. This is probably because they used cheap materials or they failed to properly fix some things on your roof.
To avoid the scam of storm chasers, you need to find a local roofing company that is an expert and will be there when you have problems. Or you supervise the new professionals as they are working on the roof to be sure they are not there to scam you.
Mystery damage
In this scenario, everything seems to be fine with your roof until a roofer comes and starts showing you unseen damages or making minor damages seem like major damages that require urgent attention or an immediate replacement. Sometimes, they offer to make a proper assessment and when they climb up to your roof they create the damages themselves. And at that point, you’ll have no choice but to allow them to rectify the problems as soon as possible.
As a homeowner, you should allow only professionals who are from reputable companies and have licenses to check your roof and inspect for damages. Also, while it is important to repair roof damages as soon as possible, we advise you not to fall victim to the roof-repair panic attack that mystery damage scammers tend to inflict on homeowners. Instead, when an out-of-town roofer points to roof damage, thank him or her and check with a professional roofer before agreeing to a repair.
Insurance fraud
If your roof is insured, the insurance company must pay for a replacement or repair in the event of damage.
Now, this is where you can get scammed.
You should never allow a contractor to completely cover your insurance deductible. Scam roofers who offer some free incentives will charge you less and charge your insurance company more, the surplus will be for the free incentive they offered you. But like I said, this is only possible when the homeowner puts the roofer in charge of the insurance process. So, to avoid this, the homeowner should either employ the service of a well-known and reliable roofing company or closely monitor the process and scrutinize the insurance bills and documents.
Low bidding price
This kind of scam happens to homeowners that feel they can’t afford the cost of a good roof repair. This is how it unfolds: a roofer offers to repair or replace your roof at a price that will make other professional roofers seem like scammers. When you hire them, they go ahead to either unroof your house or create more damages.
After which they start making excuses and creating non-existing roof issues to increase the price of the materials and their service. At this point, you can’t decide to not pay them or threaten to sue them because you urgently need your roof back to what it was before they came. Then you’re left with no other option than to increase their pay so they can complete the job they’ve started.
To avoid this kind of scam, you have to either hire trusted roofers or patiently request price quotations from different manufacturers and roofers. And then choose the price that favors you most.
Large down payment
The large down payment scam is tantamount to duping. This occurs when a contractor or roofer demands a large (advance) payment before starting the work on the homeowner’s roof. If you fall for this, there’s a high chance that the roofer will disappear from the face of the earth with your money.
A homeowner should not pay more than 20% before the job is done, so be wary of roofers that ask for more than that. You should also only contact trusted and reputable companies to help fix your roof.
While it’s necessary to carry out roof maintenance or replacement when you notice any roof damages, try to be cautious so as not to be swindled by scammers who disguise themselves as good roofers. Most importantly, always contact trusted and reliable companies when you want to fix your roof. This way, you are eliminating all chances of roof scams.