Signs for roofing companies lined the yards on Wyndham Hills Drive Friday. Many companies are already replacing roofs in areas where damage occurred. Photo by Charles Bertram | Staff Kathy Thompson didn't know she had hail damage until she started seeing fliers from roofing companies on her porch three weeks after the June 5 storm.
After consulting with her neighbor, she gave one of the companies a call. Its estimate led her to call her insurance company, which agreed her roof had damage. Roofing company signs stick out of the ground all along the front lawns of the houses on Overview Drive near Clays Mill Road in Lexington.
While Thompson said she was satisfied with the work done by Custom Home Roofing, which has been a member of the Better Business Bureau since last month according to the bureau Web site, she has heard rumors about others in her neighborhood who weren't so lucky. Thompson's ex-husband, who lives behind her, told her his neighbor put down a $2,000 deposit and hadn't heard from his roofing company since. When a storm blows through, so do a lot of new businesses looking to capitalize, said Neil Kingery, president of the Better Business Bureau.
"It's not against the law to make a living, but against the law to be fraudulent when you do it," he said. The bureau opened an investigation Monday into three new companies that are accused of using the same number and address for different business affiliations. Kingery said the bureau got complaints about companies claiming to be insurance adjusters at the same address where a customer complained about a roofing company.
Kingery didn't name the companies and expects the investigation to end Tuesday. Stewart Perry, an agent for State Farm Insurance in Lexington, said he's been receiving as many calls now as when the storm first hit. The increase, he said, came with the aggressive marketing campaign of several roofing companies that have gone door-to-door starting about two weeks after the storm hit.
alone has had 1,400 hail-damage claims in Fayette and Jessamine counties, said Shawn Johnson, spokesman at the company's Murfreesboro, Tenn., headquarters. There were so many claims that State Farm brought in more than a dozen out-of-state workers to help.
While it isn't unusual for companies to move in from out of state to take advantage of the large market for repairs, this marketing push is the largest Perry has seen. "We had a significant catastrophe after the ice storm and it wasn't this aggressive," he said. The Better Business Bureau has also gotten calls from several residents who were approached door-to-door and told they needed to have their hail damage surveyed.
Some of them, on the suggestion of the bureau, had independent inspections done that showed they didn't need a new roof after all, Kingery said. Those calls have "implied there may be some deceitful techniques being employed here," he said. Thompson's next-door neighbor, Jonathan Fisher, said he went with a roofing company owned by someone he knew at his church.
He got his new roof yesterday, a week and half after talking with his friend, the owner of R2 Roofing and Repair. "I liked the idea of knowing someone, so we didn't have any of those horror stories you hear about," he said. He said, he was glad to have his new roof up to deter other companies from soliciting his business.
Some of those roofers are subcontractors who partner with established roofing companies to do business under their names. The day of the storm, Clyde's Roofing in Georgetown got 10 calls from subcontractors wanting to partner, owner Joe Johnson said. Some offered him 10 percent of the profits and another offered a $75,000 flat fee.
The problem, he said, lies in the quality of work that subcontractors do under another business's name. Shoddy roofers use air guns, he said, which "shoot plum through the shingles, and then ..
. when they've been there three or four years, they start blowing off everywhere." He's seen other companies neglect to use the necessary underlaying when installing a new roof.
"Instead of lasting 30 years, it'll last 15," he said. Kaye Myers, the office manager at J.D.
Harper Sons roofing company, said her company also received a lot interest from subcontractors, as well as more calls from customers since the hail storm. Myers said the company decided not to hire subcontractors. "We are accountable and responsible for the work, and want it to reflect our standards and not somebody else's," she said.
Steps to inspection Lexington's Better Business Bureau has received 10 formal complaints in the last few months concerning roofing contractors. However in the last 90 days, the bureau has received more than 6,000 inquiries checking out particular roofing businesses. If you suspect your roof has hail damage and needs replacing, the bureau suggests the following steps: Contact your insurance company for an inspection of your roof to verify if there has been damage.
If your insurance company verifies that there has been damage, find out what coverage you are entitled to through your policy. If you determine that you have hail damage and would like to proceed with repairs, you will need to find a reputable roofing contractor. Contact the Better Business Bureau to get a list of referral companies.
Contact at least three companies to get estimates. Do not assume that the lowest bid will provide you with the best quality job. Get a contract of the work to be performed, including warranty time limit, and terms and conditions.
Signs for roofing companies lined the yards on Wyndham Hills Drive Friday.
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