A roof over your head is the most basic form of shelter a home provides. It is also, new figures suggest, a favoured target for fraud. In the year to August, the Citizens Advice Consumer Service received 9,000 complaints about roofing work, spanning construction, repairs and weatherproofing. Of those, 2,205, about one in four, were suspected scams, up from 2,098 the year before. Roofing accounted for one in 10 of all the scams the charity recorded over the past year, making it the most common type brought to its advisers.
The pattern behind the numbers is consistent. According to Citizens Advice, scammers posing as legitimate workmen are charging homeowners thousands of pounds for roofing work that is not completed, done badly, or not necessary in the first place.
The cost is measured in more than money. Crystal, a 68-year-old from the Midlands, said she felt pressured into agreeing to have her roof re-done and paid a total of £5,500. The original contractor sent his son instead, and the work in the eaves was left incomplete. The rogue builder left her roof with dislodged bricks and blocked gutters, and she said the ordeal left her frightened and struggling to sleep. “We had heavy rain a couple of weeks after he did the job, and it ended up like a waterfall coming down the wall,” she said. Her neighbour’s house was damaged too. “They took the lead off my neighbour’s side of the chimney, which caused bricks to fall into his attic and the rain to go into his house,” she told the BBC. The experience still haunts her. “I can’t sleep. I don’t eat properly,” she said.
Intimidation is a recurring feature of these encounters. Victims reported aggressive and intimidating behaviour, and Citizens Advice says three quarters of fraudsters used “doorstep” sales tactics.
For people living alone, the pressure can be acute. Charlotte, 65, who lives alone in north eastern England, found tradesmen online who initially offered to fix her leaking gutter for £250. The two men then said there was further work that needed to be done, at a cost of £2,500. “An hour later they said it was sorted, but they’d found another problem,” she said. It was dark, and she felt afraid. “They knew I was alone, I didn’t feel like I could deal with anything that might happen after, so I paid £3,500,” she said. By the next day, she said, she could see no sign of any work having been done.
Dame Clare Moriarty, chief executive of Citizens Advice, urged consumers to carry out thorough checks on traders before agreeing to hire them. “Scammers exploit the fact that roofs are out of sight and reach, knowing most people can’t easily inspect the work themselves,” she said.
The charity’s advice to householders is practical. Always ask for references and for everything to be in writing, it says, and be wary of unsolicited doorknockers and callers. If a trader causes problems, gather evidence, including photographs, the necessary paperwork and receipts. Householders should also know their rights. Traders must give information about the right to cancel in writing, and if a job is not done with “reasonable care and skill”, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 entitles customers to ask for the problem to be fixed or for a refund.
Enforcement bodies describe the problem as criminal rather than simply poor workmanship. Lord Bichard, chair of National Trading Standards, said rogue traders were “criminals deliberately preying on people in their own homes” and called roofing fraud “particularly cruel”. Trading Standards, he said, would pursue fraudsters through legal routes. “Victims can lose life savings in a matter of hours and be left with damaged homes, financial hardship and a profound sense of vulnerability long after the criminals have gone,” he said.
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