You just never know whether to believe the contractor up on next door’s roof when he points out the holes and defects in your own roof system. It could well be the oldest of tricks being played out here. It used to be widely practiced by the less scrupulous contractor that once up on one roof, they would have a look over the neighbouring roofs to see if there was any need for work, however slight. The next step, and made even easier these days with mobile phones used for every piece of evidence gathering, the contractor will take ‘compelling’ phototgraphs down to the hapless neighbours to show that their roof is in a bad way because of this problem or that. One point here is that you have no proof that the photos proffered are even your roof, unless you can recognise something else up at the roof line OR are brave enough to say you want to go up to the roof for a personal guided tour of what is wrong with your roof! It is an easy hack when the original neighbour has signed to pay for the cotnractor to have scaffolding put up around their house, that expensive element of any roof job is already done. So now the contractor will say to Neighbours 2 and 3 . . . that as the scaffolding is already up, now would be a sensible time for them to have the remedial work carried out. There will be some ‘never to be repeated’ special price which has to be agreed to at that very minute because the contractor is so busy etc. etc. If the neighbour has any concerns about the genuine situtation or feels uncomfortable with this direct approach, they should always try to engage the attention of at least the first neighbour whose roof is supposed to be being repaired. This happened very recently in my local area; fortunately the first neighbour had been up on the scaffolding with the contractor when the 2nd roof damage was spotted and photographed. No problem there then. It goes without saying that if there is any hassle for a ‘cash now, up front’ or any pressure for payment before any work has taken place, resistance must be put up. Usually though the work will be needed; in real terms, if one roof has deteriorated and the next roof is the same age, points in the same direction and faces the same weather coditions, then it probably does need remedial work. The price qoted must not contain an element for installing or dismantling scaffolding if it was put up for a previous job, unless neighbour 2 comes to an arrangement with neighbour 1 to contribute to that cost. There are trustworthy roofing contractors out there!
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