Need Advice - What Would You Do?
 

I will try to be brief, but it's a long story.

Mid-Feb. 2009 - We had a windstorm which ripped some shingles off the roof. We didn't even know until our neighbor called because you can't see that part of the roof unless you are down on the street looking up.

DH started calling roofers. One (roofer #1) said he was too busy to come out and look, but that he's been doing a lot of these and it would be between $150 - $300. DH said thanks, hung up and proceeded to call other companies who would actually come out and look at the job in person.

March 2009 - I got an invoice from roofer #1 for $225.00 for repairs made on 2/25/09. I was like :eek::eek:! I went down to the street and looked up and sure enough the roof was fixed. I was totally ticked at that point and turned this over to DH to handle. I couldn't believe a roofer would come out with no contract, unannounced, climb up on my roof and fix it when no one was even home. I mean, that is bizarre.

DH called said roofer and left a voice mail message which was never returned. I tossed the bill in a pile of papers and promptly forgot about it because I was trying to run back and forth to the hospital to take care of Grandma. I honestly never remembered about it again until this guy started calling. He never sent a reminder invoice or anything. I asked DH to call him back, but he said he never could get him on the phone, so he just kept hanging up on his voice mail.

Earlier this week, he left a very nasty toned message for us to pay him and at least have enough respect to call him back. I called back and got the infamous voice mail and left him a long message regarding the fact that we never agreed to the work, he never called to tell us he was coming to do the work, etc. I never said I wasn't going to pay him, just that I was annoyed at his lack of professionalism.

He called back and got very nasty on my voice mail saying that DH authorized him on the phone to do the work that first phone call and he expects to get paid.

I called back again and talked to his voice mail and told him that I could prove that DH never authorized it because we were still soliciting bids from several other contractors because we really wanted someone to come out and physically look at it and also to look at a condition at our skylite. I apologized for the fact that it took so long for us to talk about the situation, but that my grandmother was dying of cancer at the time and this was on the back burner.

He called back and left me another message stating that I am a liar and DH is a liar and he is going to write it off to bad debt and don't ever call him again. Then he says "we have a name for people like you who get more than 3 bids for a job but I can't say it over the phone".

At that point, I just started crying. I was really going to pay this man, but I wanted some apology from him for how he went about doing the work. I took it personally what he said. He had such a nasty tone of voice and acted like I was the scum of the earth.

I never ever let a contractor do any kind of major work to my house without obtaining their insurance certificates, etc. I got to wondering if he just does little jobs this way. I wonder how many times he just shows up at someone's house and they say go ahead since you are here. I have never had any kind of contractor do a job on a verbal over the phone. If I had been home when he just showed up to do the work, I would have told him to leave.

I think I really feel bad that it went 3 months before this was addressed, but I was just a tad preoccupied taking care of Grandma before she died. I know that, legally, he can't make us pay because he can't document anything and we can prove we were still seeking quotes. I still want to pay him, though, and maybe write him a letter explaining my side of the story. Then, maybe follow up with a complaint to the BBB. What do you all think?

Wow. "Jerk" doesn't even scrape the surface where this guy is concerned. Before you pay him anything, know as much as you can about him. Suppliers, competitors, BBB, contrators' licensing bureau, etc. would be a way to start.

The fact that he has no signed work order/agreement would leave him wading in his own doo-doo in court, so no need to worry about that.

He even sounds like the kind of guy who would come back and tear his work apart just for spite!

What I would do is this: Have the work inspected! I would send him a bill via registered mail for the inspection to be sure it's up to code and done right. If it needs correction or additional repair, I'd also send him that bill.

I would further send him a non-threatening letter indicating that you are perfectly willing to go to court over the situation should he elect to take that course.

If he persists, I would seriously look into ordinances against trespassing and the like. This guy is giving roofers a bad name.

Personally, I'd contact a lawyer. Depending on your state laws, the work he did was not done with a legal and binding contract. Many states require the contract in writing and with signatures from both parties.

I hope you saved the voice mail messages. This guy sounds like a "piece of work" (as my Dad would say). He can't sue you....he has no contract.

I'd at least let the neighbors know he did the work (and the name of his company) so if he comes back they can tell you someone was up on your roof if they happen to see him. I wouldn't put it past him to come back and take the repaired part of the roof off! :eek:

If he threatened you in any of the messages you can file a police report just to have a paper trail.

Some people can be so ignorant. He puts a whole new meaning behind the word. :rolleyes:

BTW....I wouldn't pay him a dime. Or even a penny!

At least he only wants $300 (at least I think that's what you said he wants)

We got screwed out of $10,000 last year by a roofer. We had a bad windstorm that came with lots of large hail.

We had a couple of roofers look at our roof, and my dad chose the roofing company that said they would come out and fix the roof, and fix a whole bunch of other things that were damaged in the storm.

They came out, fixed the roof (screwed up part of it, that we now have to get fixed again) and never did any of the other stuff they verbally agreed to do.

While they were here fixing our roof, they were stealing our larger landscaping rocks that we've had in our landscaping at the last two houses that we lived in and brought with us to this one. I actually saw one guy walking to their car with two of the rocks in his hand. (never confronted them because none of these guys spoke english...I think they were Somali or something, and I wanted the roof to be fixed. Should have reported them) The guy came within a few minutes of them finishing our roof for the check.

Everyone else's roofs cost them about $5k to $7k to fix...this guy screwed my dad out of $10,000. Overcharged us.

We had another hailstorm earlier this year, so we had a different roofer check it a few weeks ago. No damage this time, but he said the roofers last year screwed up and didnt use metal on the corners and stuff on the roof and that we should repair that in the next few years.

I hope you got another roofer to go up and check the work that the sneaky roofer did to your house.

I am happy you got your roof fixed, but sorry you are dealing with a jerk.

I had advice but have chosen to just give you hugs instead.

He's a jerk and a bully. No one authorized any work, a good contractor would never start work without a signed acceptance of estimate. A verbal ball-park estimate?. In the real world this not how it's done. Bet he doesn't even carry insurance. He never outlined the scope of his work when he never bidded. Were there any flashings involved, tar-paper replacement. Same roofing material, etc. Sounds like he hopes cheating in small amounts will fill his pocket.

i agree with all the other comments.
i wouldn't pay him a dime. maybe he goes around the community doing this to other people and harasses them into paying him.

contact your BBB. call your local DA and/or chamber of commerce and run this by them.

you gave him more than enuf respect. he gave you none.

His statement that he believed your Husband authorized the work will count as a contract for home repair. I would pay him, but tell everyone you know to not never call him for anything. He seems to be a rather ignorant person. At least he did fix the roof.:rolleyes:

Thanks everyone for the thoughts and advice. I talked a lawyer friend here and she said that with no signed quote, this guy can't do anything. We can prove that we were still getting quotes after the date this guy said he authorized it.

I'm going to put aside my hurt feelings and try to not worry so much about what this guy thinks of me. DH listened to the last message last night and he felt the guy was rather defensive which led him to believe that the guy didn't like being called on this.

Maybe it was all a big mix up, but the way he handled it was so upsetting. I still don't know exactly what we are going to do, but I don't feel as disturbed. I will still probably pay him just for my own conscience because I still feel responsible because it would feel like I was getting away with something even if he was a jerk and did unauthorized work. I will just think / pray on it a bit.