It is tempting to start a blog on the topic of roofing rip-offs with, “Have you heard the one about? . . .”  The Better Business Bureau ranks the volume of complaints about roofers twentieth among 3,900 categories for which it collects data. There are a number of classics.

Tales abound of roofers who require a large down payment when the contract is signed but never show up to do the work.  And then there those who start a job in order to get the first payment but never finish—and those who finish the roof but never return to clean up the site after they’ve been paid.

Another common complaint involves “storm-chasers”—itinerant roofers who swoop into communities where hail storms frequently occur and market their services by offering free inspections.  Of course, they charge real money for repairing the “storm damage” they find. There are two problems with storm chasers: One is that even a severe hail storm rarely causes serious damage to roofs, and the other is that storm chasers don’t hang around long enough to answer complaints about poor workmanship or fraudulent practices.

Then there are the roofers who tell you they need to tear off your existing roof and put on a new one in order to fix a leak. There are good reasons to do a tear-off, but the appearance of a leak isn’t one of them. If a roofer proposes a tear-off to fix a leak in your roof, think rip-off, instead. Click here for top tips for avoiding roofing rip-offs and learn about roofing choices.