Roofer saying he has passed the £3500 job on to a mate

[TheGander]

I have a garage which adjoins my brother’s and both need the guttering and fascia replaced. I got the ball rolling on this back in May, contacted someone who has multiple positive reviews in Which? Trusted traders, and have been told more than once it will be “ fitted in” in the next couple of weeks, the guy said the roofs also need replacing and it would be £3500 . Very steep I thought but I agreed as I wanted to prevent further damage. Rang today and he tells me he’s passed the job on to a mate. This guy has reviews on checkatrade ( not worth much IMO) , 1 on Google. I can’t find him on Companies House. This is ringing alarm bells, he tells me the guy wants to start next week. Any opinions/ advice?

I would pull out tbh.

I get that it's a pain and that you just want this job done, but this doesn't sound great.

Do you have local Facebook groups or the like where you could get personal recommendations?

If you don't feel comfortable with it then don't go ahead with it.
You're paying a lot of money and agreed for the first person to do the work, not his mate.

Is it £3500 total for both roofs and the new guttering and fascia

We had a very small job. Checked reviews check a trade etc. He quoted and on the day dropped off another guy who did an awful job which will need to be redone. I won't let that happen again.

The agreement and quote was with the first guy, not with his mate, pull out now.

Yes it’s for both garages. I’m not even convinced the roofs need replacing, mine looks fine and I’ll have a better idea of my brother’s next week after it’s cleared and I can see the joists. But my spidey senses tell me this isn’t right, I’ve had trades pull dodgy stunts on me and I’m getting a similar feeling here. Thanks everyone, I’d also welcome further advice if any else wants to comment.

Any asbestos present? He may not be licensed to remove if so.

Defo avoid. We had a scenario like this and it quickly became a nightmare with original roofers cowboy mate 🙄

I've had similar happen and the person he palmed the job off onto asked me to transfer him fuel money to get to my house (2 miles away).

I know of one guy you keeps taking jobs/contracts and then passing them on to other people.

All he does, and not for free. But he never says to clients that he's only a middleman, and that he couldn't care less to who he will pass the job, as long he gets his cut.

This might be a variation of the scam. I would stay away from both of these guys. Better to spend few more weeks finding a reliable roofer than ending up with a protracted disaster zone.

I agree. We got a firm from Check a trade to remove rendering and re-do it, to the whole house. They did a rubbish job, and when I posted a bad review they said they'd re-do it if I took the review down. Err, no? I didn't realize workmen could just pay to be listed-I thought they had to be recommended.

Tell him you have engaged him to do the job not anyone else and if he can't do it then don't bother

Cancel the job and leave a review about the original roofer's plan to contract it out. Sounds like the price could be so they both make money out of the deal.

That’s it then, I’ll text tomorrow to say I’m not happy to go ahead. What annoyed me also was him saying there was no margin in the £3500 because prices had gone up, when the price was agreed about 3 months ago. Not my fault. Thanks everyone for your input.

Sorry about your awful experience @sueelleker , it was brave of you not to let them bribe you into removing the review. DH left a bogus review in Checkatrade for a mate’s mate ( we’d never used him). Then during covid this cowboy fraudulently claimed for ( and got) a load of government money.

I would not go ahead. Checkatrade not worth it at all. We had a roofer with about 10 good reviews, total cowboy spent £8800, took him to small claims court, CCJ and he disappeared and we never saw a penny.

@sueelleker we were later told by a tradesman that checkatrade and all those sites aren’t worth anything. :( Does leave you a bit stuck when you can’t get recommendations from people you know and trust. Even if you ask on FB or Nextdoor you are going to get recommendations from someone’s friends and family (understandably).

What sort of roof is it? £3,500 doesn’t sound ‘that’ much and maybe builder 1 realizes he has mid-quoted?
post a picture. How much were your alternative quotes?

Ask him for your money back. Say you hired him not his friend. He sounds unreliable.

No money handed over yet. Back to square one in the search for a reliable roofer ☹️.