As a member of your community, my hope is you are cautious when choosing a contractor.
With the recent storms, our area has been inundated with out of town, door to door roofing salesman, telemarketers and pop up companies who are working without local licenses and committing fraud – so please take your time to research their long-term commitment to you.
One common scam to keep an eye out for is if the roofing contractors San Antonio offers to pay your insurance deductible.
Here’s how this scam works: dishonest roofing companies may offer to pay all or part of your insurance deductible in order to win your business. As an example, let’s say a new roof will cost you $10,000 and your deductible is $1,000.
In a legitimate and ethical transaction, the insurance company pays you $9,000 and you pay the roofing contractor your deductible, out of pocket.
But in the deductible scam, the unethical roofing contractor over bills the insurance company by falsifying the invoice for the full $10,000, when only $9,000 is being collected by the customer. That is considered insurance fraud.
Now the dishonest roofing contractor has to make up the $1,000 you “saved”, often with inferior materials, poor craftsmanship or other shortcuts. In the end, you’ll have a shoddy roof and face possible criminal prosecution.
Plus, once they are gone from our community, who will you turn to when you have leaks, poor workmanship, warranty issue, etc?
Other variations of this scam include inflating the invoice to cover your deductible, or an advertising reimbursement/allowance (for example, allowing them to put a sign in your yard).
Since 1989, Texas Law 27.02 states that anyone who advertises or promises to provide a good or service and pay all or part of the insurance deductible (or even rebate part of the deductible) is committing insurance fraud, and is a class A misdemeanor. Homeowners face fines and even jail time.
How to avoid this scam
- Beware of storm chasers knocking on your door right after a storm
- If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!
- Only hire a local, reputable roofing contractor after checking out their references, BBB standing and the status of their roofer’s license
Go with a trusted, local company who can prove to you they are locally licensed, insured and have a reputation backed by customers from your very own community!
Call the Integrity Roofing and Hardiplank Siding San Antonio team at (210) 340-ROOF, we’d be happy to assist and serve you!