If you had a two year home and many of your shingles continually blew off, blew up who and what would you do?

Question

We have dealt with the manufacturer of the shingles, our contractor, City Building Inspectors, The new home warranty people even a lawyer, the installer of the shingles and yet we still have the problem. We even spent 9400 dollars to learn that our shingles we not installed properly the Ontario building code was not followed.

Answer 1

I used to own a roofing company and your lawyer should have told you that if it wasnt done proplery and you can prove that, then you can sue the people that did the work, in the meantime to keep from ruining your house have someone else fix the roof and do it right, you can get your money back for the cost when you sue the people that did it originally, that is the reason we have to carry insurance here in the us so if we mess something up we have to go back and fix it.

Answer 2

It's unlikely the mfr will help - this sounds like a faulty installation, so it's the contractors fault. The city bldg inspector will take no responsibility - it's not their fault.

$9400 is probably too little for a lawyer to take a case, unless you agreed to pay them on an hourly basis, or could find other homeowners who had similar probs with the same contract so the total damages are much higher.

Does Ontario have a small claims court for individuals and business to take cases whose damages are less than $10,000? That might be a better choice - even if you only get partial return.

Here is my strategy:
Hire an independent, highly qualified and recommended roofing contractor to give you a written assessment & recommendations of your roof failure. It might cost $250 - $500 for the report.
Take it to you lawyer and seek his/her opinion.

You might approach the original contractor and tell him you demand all the recommendations & repairs performed at his cost, before the first storm of the fall season. Maybe your lawyer can draft a letter (another $250-300.)

If the contractor says go pound sand, then you file a complaint with your provincial contractors license board about the problem and tell them this is very urgent due to weather. They should act quickly (be persistant) and can threaten to revoke the contractors license. (If your contractor is unlicensed, you are SOL.)

If you got a 'no' from the contractor, you probably should hire the expert contractor (who gave you the failure analyis) to install a new roof, which might involve tearing off the old one -- it depends on how many layers. (Esp. if the original contractor used the incorrect nail heads or staples on all of the shingles.)

Unfortunately, you have doubled the cost of your roof, but a failed roof will lead to other much more costly water damage if you don't get it repaired.

At this point, you take all of your bills to your lawyer and sue the orginal contractor. The easy part is winning your case. The hard part is getting your money from an unscrupulous, unlicensed or undercapitalized contractor.

When choosing a contractor, check him/her out thoroughly:
current license, no outstanding/unresolved complaints on file, properly bonded and insured, pay-as-you-go (and keep up to 30% at the end until the job is completely finished), check current references (even inspect recent jobs) and contact the contractor's suppliers for good credit and business practices.

I am very sorry about your roof problems. Best of luck.

Answer 3

I'm guessing, they didn't use the proper kind of nails, the kind with larger flat head, to secure the shingles. Now that you know, the code wasn't followed, and indeed the installations were to blame, you have two choices:

1) contact the installer and have them correct the errors. If they refuse, sue them for remedy. Basically, you can sue them for the money paid to them, money you spent to get it inspected, your attorney fees, and the court cost.

2) contact a NEW installer and correct or redo the installation. You can sue the original installer for all of your damages. That includes money you spent to pay him, money you spent to have it inspected, money you spent to pay the second installer, and your attorney cost and the court cost.

Because the cost will be substantial, I suggest you'd contact a local attorney for advise.

I don't know about the laws in Canada, but in US, you need to have a permit pulled and inspection done for any roof work. I am guessing you/your_contractor did not do this.

Typically, the home owner is ultimately responsible for pulling or making sure it is pulled by your contractor, but US authority tends to be lenient when home owners were mislead by the contractor.

Good luck.

Answer 4

I think your contractor would be responsible for improperly installing. Here in the states we would file a lawsuit, but I dont know the rules in Canada. If you spent $9400 why was the problem not fixed? that would be about what it would cost to reshingle.