The Roofing Industry and the home improvement field, like certain others involving consumer products and services has its share of con artists. Not many, but enough to make customer complaints fairly frequent.

The Better Business Bureau indicate that in spite of this relatively high amount of complaints, an large percent of them are settled without court actions.

The high percentage of home improvements complaints has led to the formation of a set of National Standards of Practice for the Home Improvement Industry. The standards are divided into three parts: advertising, selling the product or services, and taking care of the customer after the sale.

While investigating consumer complaints there are two notable conditions:

1. In many complaint cases the consumer arguments are not really factual and the businesses involved have acted legally and ethically;

2. The most common characteristic of the majority of the consumer complaints is a lack of communication that leads to a misunderstanding.

It is clear that most complaints arise from the procedures that home improvement businesses employ in obtaining the customer’s order, rather than from poor workmanship or use of inferior material.

Common Scams Used

According to citations by the Federal Trade Commission resulting from consumer complains on firms selling home improvement services, these are some of the types of misrepresentation:

• A sales gimmick that encourages you to sign a contract now
• A time limit for obtaining a special discount
• Price reduction offered for vague or light weight non-valid reasons
• Sales talk that is heavily anti-competitor in nature
• Loose use of verbal-guarantee type language
• Offers to finance cost through credit which involves the use of a non-recourse instrument.

The offer to give you a special deal because the contractor’s men are working on a couple other jobs in the neighborhood still arouses homeowner interest. Beware of the ‘convenience approach’ in which the contractor simply drops in on you, under no circumstances give any home improvement contractor, roofing contractor or specialist any money in advance or a deposit.

You can read more on the National Association of Remodeling Industry Standards of Practice at http://www.nari.org/about/standards/

When choosing a contractor, if your home has a relatively low sloped roof, the re-roofing job will not be too much of a problem. Steeper or more completed roofs will require more diligence when selecting a roofing contractor.

If you take more time choosing your contractor, asking a lot of questions, making a few phone calls, you will have a better chance of success with your roofing job.

While gathering roofing companies contact information, use a variety of sources. Plan on making 5 to 7 contacts by using the internet, yellow pages, friends or neighbors and your insurance company sometimes have list of roofers in your area
Choose roofers that specialize in residential re-roofing jobs.

Generally, the better contractors will take their time, walking the length and width of the house and asking you questions about what you wanted. The better ones will already know what options will suit your home better and will discuss these with you.

Find out when the work will begin

Ask each contractor when they plan on starting the job and how long they anticipate it will take. Contractors usually like to keep the times a little loose to cover their existing work schedule.

After you have spoken to the contractors and taken notes on your impression of them next you will wait for the written proposals. Some contractors will now show up or fail to send you a proposal. Some bids will be unusually high and some will be too good to be true. Read each proposal carefully to insure all the work you wanted done is included.

Once you have narrowed down your choices, call customer references and check with the Better Business Bureau for any information regarding the contractor.

Before signing a contract be sure all the work you wanted done is included. Make sure the payment information is clearly spelled out and verify the contractors insurance and compensation liability forms are current.

A roofing job is a major expense and the more diligent you are, the less surprises can occur.