Thought you might want to alert IFA homeowners that there are a couple of older men who come around periodically to clean gutters. They drive a station wagon well stocked with spray paint. Upon "inspecting" the roof they usually recommend minor roof repairs. Homeowners should be forewarned that their "repair job" is generally an expensive spray painting job. They do not actually fix anything but only make things look "good" from the curbside. We had our roof replaced a few months after they spray painted pipes, caulked and nailed down loose shingles. The roofing company confirmed it was just topical treatment poorly done. The men also spray painted our neighbor's trim that was peeling and painted right over the peeling paint without ever scraping and preparing the area. In addition, walking on an old roof can cause more damage and nailing old shingles causes more splitting. I was sorry to see more homeowners being taken advantage of last month and wanted to alert the community.
Thought this may be of interest to the Inverness Forest Today blog.
Beth Dromerick
I have my own warning to residents about hiring itinerant workers to do repairs to their houses. Any repairman you hire should be bonded and have insurance against liability that might arise should the repairman be injured when working on your house. If one of the repairmen that Beth mentioned should fall off the roof, the homeowner might be sued for huge damages. It is very unlikely that the repairmen in this instance have liability insurance. Ask them to show you a certificate of liability insurance before you hire them. At least get a recommendation from other residents before engaging workmen who knock on your door.
The community's website has a message board that residents can use to communicate with the community. One topic on this message board is set up to let homeowners pass on their experience and recommendations about local repair companies. Take a look at this topic and perhaps you will find a recommendation for a service you plan to use. A link to the website can be found in the column on the right.
Harvey
ifatreasurer@mac.com
(See Comments below for residents responses)
3 comments:
Sally Tate has sent the following email about her experience with these workmen:Hi Harvey,
A few years ago (2006) I hired these repair people and got shoddy work. Usually I don't hire any door to door people but saw them working on a few other houses in this cul du sac. They did my gutters, replaced a few shingles at a big cost and did a terrible job repairing the rim of my concrete porch. They do come around frequently but now I don't answer the door. Not only is their work shoddy, the more assertive one makes offensive remarks which he thinks are funny. I just went back to my checking records and believe the name I wrote on the check was Thomas Ricketts, if that helps. As I recall, he told me he is from Gaithersburg.
Sally Tate
I had a similar experience with two men who showed up with cans of spray paint in December, 2008. Their ruse was to perform every paint job for $20 so that the total built up without being aware of it. They also repaired a few shingles which I provided them. Before I knew it I ended up paying about $300. The name of one of the workers was Raul Perez. The other would not give me his name.
Anwar Khan
I received this email from Mr. and Mrs. Brown:Harvey
Two years ago, I know of two of us were scamed by a guy saying he cleaned the gutters and roof, but did nothing. Charged $35.
Good work on scam reports
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