Roofing Scams in Ontario: The Door Knock, the Storm Chaser, the Free Inspection, and What to Say to Each

1. The door knock

How it sounds: “We’re doing a roof down the street and I noticed a few of your shingles are lifting. I can go up and take a look for free.” How it works: there may or may not be a roof down the street. The free look finds damage, sometimes real, sometimes made on the spot (a lifted tab, a scuffed shingle, a loosened vent cap), and the photos come down with a price and a reason to decide today. What to say: “No thank you, I don’t take unsolicited quotes.” Then close the door. A roofer with a full calendar does not knock on doors; the ones who do have a reason the calendar is empty.

2. The storm chaser

How it sounds: a week after the hail or the windstorm, a crew with out-of-province or out-of-region plates canvassing the neighbourhood, offering to handle your insurance claim, waive your deductible, and start Monday. How it works: they sign fifty roofs in a week, do them fast with whoever they can hire, overbill the insurer, and are gone before the first leak. The waived deductible is insurance fraud, and you signed it. What to say: “I’ll call my insurer and my own roofer.” Your insurer lets you choose the contractor; the storm damage page explains how the claim actually works.

3. The free inspection that finds everything

How it sounds: an inspection offered by a roofing company that sells roofs, which comes back with photos of damage you cannot verify from the ground and a replacement quote. How it works: sometimes the damage is real. Sometimes the photo is of a different roof, or of a shingle the inspector lifted himself. Sometimes a $400 boot becomes a $16,000 roof. What to say: “Send me the photos and I’ll get a second opinion.” Then get one from someone who does not sell roofs: a home inspector, a different roofer, or the $99 review with the photos attached. The repair vs. replacement page is how you check their story against the attic.

4. The deposit

How it sounds: “Fifty percent down to order the materials, and we’ll be here in three weeks.” How it works: the three weeks become eight, the phone stops being answered, and the company’s name changes. Or they show up, strip half the roof, ask for the next payment “for the shingles,” and leave it tarped. What to say: “Ten to fifteen percent, and the balance when it’s done.” Materials for a roof are delivered the morning of the job and paid by the roofer on account; nobody needs your $8,000 in March for a roof in May. Ontario’s Consumer Protection Act gives a ten-day cooling-off period on contracts signed at your home, in writing, for a full refund of the deposit; use it the moment the story changes.

5. The overlay sold as a new roof

How it sounds: “We’ll put a brand new roof on for $7,900.” How it works: no tear-off. The new shingles go over the old, the deck is never looked at, the old flashings stay, the old vents stay, and the price is low because half the job was skipped. It looks new from the street for about four years. What to say: “Is that with the old shingles removed, and is the flashing new?” If the answer is no, it is not a new roof, it is a lid. The tear-off page explains why the $1 a square foot matters.

6. The warranty from nowhere

How it sounds: “Lifetime warranty on everything.” How it works: the company was incorporated last year and will be a different company next year; the lifetime is the company’s, not yours. The manufacturer’s warranty, meanwhile, was never registered, because the roofer is not certified, and it covers material defects only anyway. What to say: “Show me the manufacturer’s warranty document and the registration, and put your workmanship warranty in the contract with a term in years.” The warranties page has what the real ones say.

The habits that make you a bad target

• Never buy a roof from someone who came to you. Go to them.
• Three written quotes on your own written scope, from roofers you found through the supply counter, a neighbour, a builder or an inspector. The hiring page.
• WSIB clearance and the insurance certificate in hand before anyone climbs a ladder.
• Small deposit, balance on completion, after you have walked it with the checklist.
• A contract with the fourteen things in it, including the ten-day cooling-off clause.
• Photos of your own roof, from the ground, today, so that “damage” found next spring can be compared to something.

If it has already happened

Stop paying. Write down everything with dates and keep every message. If the contract was signed at your home within ten days, send written cancellation under the Consumer Protection Act and demand the deposit back. Report it to Consumer Protection Ontario and, if money was taken for work never started, to the police as fraud; the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre takes reports too. If a storm chaser had you sign over an insurance claim, call your insurer today and tell them. Small claims court in Ontario handles up to $35,000 without a lawyer, and a roofer who took a deposit and left is exactly what it is for. And if the roof was half done and tarped, get a real roofer to finish it before the water does more damage than the thief did; the repair page has the numbers.

Sources and further reading

• Your rights when starting home renovations or repairs: Ontario government. The 10-day cooling-off period, the 10% estimate rule, and what a contract has to say.
• After the storm: insurance essentials: Insurance Bureau of Canada. The order to do things in after wind or hail.
• WSIB clearances: where you check that the roofer has a valid clearance certificate before anyone goes up the ladder.