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Roofer has done a bad job and stole our money
So had the worst thing happen long story but had some roofing work done because of a leak they told us we needed lots of work doing on our roof so we did but they left it really badly and despite having a guarantee on the work they are now ignoring my calls & messages.
We’ve paid them thousands of pounds! I have now found a friends SIL who’s a roofer and he’s come and looked at the work and he said that we didn’t need any of the work that we had done that. They’ve also done the work really badly. The worst he’s ever seen and they’ve also made/ slash holes deliberately in our roof – to look like we needed the work done.
So ultimately we’ve been conned out of thousands of pounds and now we have to pay somebody more money to rectify the situation.
The company mentioned has 95 five star Google reviews, hence why I initially went with him but digging deeper He looks to be like a complete conman, but I’m also pretty worried because he’s quite intimidating and Irish and I’m worried that if I try and pursue it any further, they may be some repercussions And I’m worried about my safety.
I guess I’m just putting it out there for some help and opinions really because it’s just been a really horrible situation and I don’t know what to do. Thank you
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9 Replies
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I am so sorry this has happened. I think the first thing is contact citizens advice and allow them to also make a record of the roofer business and name and it’s likely if they are that established there will be more reports and other stories.
Establish with them what your next course of action is and take extra special care of you as these things can be really traumatic and violating when you feel you have lost a lot of money too. Please don’t even feel any sense of what you could have done differently. Re-living it over and over can be so stressful. Let us know how citizens advice goes too!
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I feel your pain. Years ago we got a damaged roof after a storm. Insurance co wanted to use their guys but for some crazy reason I used a guy I’d found because he seemed really nice when he came. Long story short he charged thousands for scaffolding and reroofing but one guy spent half a day here went up a ladder and put clips in to put the roof back in order. When I spoke to the guy to say he hadn’t done the job we agreed and hadn’t even used scaffolding he called me a liar I hadn’t seen the scaffold go up and come down the same day (I was home all day!) and then said what do I care the insurance is paying. I left it because he became intimidating but lo and behold my insurance doubled the next year. But I know what you mean about leaving it, these guys can be intimidating but if you do fight it maybe they’ll learn their lesson in future.. tough call
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Roofers are the absolute worst. I had one rip me off. As if that wasn’t bad enough, he knocked facade bricks off a corner & caused cracks throughout the entire building. The address Check-a-Trade had for him was a field.
MCR Roofing – MasterCraftsman Roofing. I probably lost £10k but you just got to deal with it & move on. Your property will have increased in value so it’s swings & roundabouts.
I’m sorry to hear he’s Irish. They are usually better because they rely on reputation.
You could sue him in the Small Claims Court but then you’d have to recover the money. So it could be a long process.
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Ring Trading Standards, chances are they will already have heard of him, you’re unlikely to be the first that he’s done this to. Sometimes trading standards take the case on and prosecute on behalf of victims. At the very least they will tell you where you stand as far as the law goes. They’re really helpful & much easier to get through to than I anticipated. Citizens Advice isnt really for disputes between tradesmen and clients, you need Trading Standards. Good luck – thats a horrible thing to happen
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So sorry to hear about your experience. Roofers are notoriously poor so it’s not you!
Can I suggest the following:
Take some small steps to feel like you are in control and not being bullied: pull together your notes, take photographs, write down what the SIL friend said and the conversation you had with the roofer (not nice to relive but get it out your system and a relatively contemporaneous note)
As others have said, call Trading Standards and log the company and his name.
Personal safety fears and bullying is not on – keep a diary. Log with Police now if you feel threatened already by what’s happened/been said/intimated.
Then breathe for a minute and take stock.
Money can be recovered in Court (or mediation which is cheaper but I’d guess he wouldn’t turn up). CAB won’t be able to do anything in practice but if you manage to speak to them then all good and helpful stuff.
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From a different angle you might benefit from some regular self-care, whether that is allowing an hour to switch off and indulge in some me time, a walk, coffee with a friend, journalling, meditation or anything relaxing, because this is traumatic. It’s taken me years to get over similar.
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I’ve been through something fairly similar, I completely empathise with how you are feeling, it’s horrible. Do you have a doorbell camera? That can be useful as evidence if they come to your door to harass you (this happened to me). Call the police if they bully you- I logged mine with the police who were really nice although ultimately nothing happened I still think it’s worth registering. Just hang on in there- one day this will be over! Although I still worry the roof will fall off any time it gets windy! Definitely go to trading standards. I also went to my insurers legal help people as that was part of my policy- ultimately for me they were as much use as a chocolate teapot but yours might be better if you have that in your policy- although ultimately their decision on whether to help seemed completely based on whether they thought they’d recover their fees from a judgement against the roofer and with a lot of these small traders the answer to that is there probably aren’t enough assets in the business name.
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This is horrific! Did you say where you got their details from? Obviously if it’s from checkatrade etc then make a big fuss.
I know what you mean about feeling intimidated. Is it worth trying to get the police involved as well as trading standards and citizens advice?
I think it’s a good idea to write it all down really clearly so that you can refer to it rather than keep trying to trawl through your memory. Because you’re going to need to repeat yourself to various people. I think it’s worth pursuing.
I do want to say I’m getting to the end of my rope in terms of all these dodgy characters taking our money. How dare they feel entitled to something that’s not theirs is my first thought but hot on the heels is, they do it because they all seem to be able to get away with it.
I’m still in the process of trying to put my home back into a liveable space at the moment but, when I’m done I’m hoping I’ll feel invigorated to start some kind of investigation and campaign to get better protection from all the hideous and intimidating rogue traders. I’m fuming about it all.
I wish you all the best and I’m just so sorry it’s happened to you. Keep us posted. Take care and yes, use ring doorbell and inform your neighbours to look out etc too
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I’m so sorry to hear about this. If it’s any consolation, we had an issue with a group of “tree surgeon” conmen. I think they were Irish travellers. They got very aggressive over text to my husband when he put up a warning about them on Nextdoor, and I was really worried about our safety, but nothing came of it. I think they’ll be busy working on the next scam.
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