Don't get scammed - Guarantees and payments

“Don’t Get Scammed: Guarantees and Payments”

We need to watch out for scam artists trying to benefit from weather related home damage. The US General in Iowa, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) have given some important topics that I want to talk to you about. When a disaster strikes, scam artists will be ready to take advantage of other people’s misfortune.

Get guarantees in writing. Don’t let contractors give you lip service and blue sky agreements. Make them put their offers in writing, and to take it a step further, make sure it is clearly understandable to you. If it is in writing but you can’t understand it, it’s a worthless guarantee. It needs to be in plain English where it makes sense to you, or else you should have them rewrite it.

The contractor should have no problem rewriting their offer right in front of you in a way that it makes sense. I also make people initial the guarantees so there is indication that they have read and understood them. Remember, if it isn’t in writing, it probably won’t get done. They will either say that they forgot about it, or even more likely, hope that you will forget about it yourself.

Also, make final payments upon completion of work. Never make the full payment up front. I don’t expect that of my customers, and won’t accept full payment up front even if customers offer it. Do not sign any completion papers until the work is completed to your satisfaction. At Bakeris Roofing, we do a post-job inspection with homeowners to make sure everything is satisfactory. We also do an inspection on the roof. The homeowner is more than welcome to come up on the roof with us. (Technically, they can’t use our ladder, since our insurance doesn’t cover them).

Our goal is to make sure that our customers are 100% satisfied. Then, we’ll have them sign off on the post-job inspection and get the rest of the money from the completed project