Dodgy Roofers Always Get Away Unpunished

Punchy21

Why is it in Ireland the law seems to be protecting dodgy roofers more than the people they do work for. It's an absolute joke that there's no regulation over these. It's a disgrace that their left continue conning old people and genuine people out of their money. When you go to report to the guards they tell you it's a civil matter. Go to a solicitor and they ask have you spoken to the guards. Then for a solicitor to tell you that you have no case and basically it's your fault for ever having them near your house. They tell you that if you take a case it'll cost you loads, you'll probably win but the judge won't be able to get your money back or may not end up putting them behind bars. To make it worse to be told that a small claims court again will not be able to enforce the judgement if you win the case which is probably likely. So basically the system in Ireland is set up to protect people that go around screwing people out of their hard earned money and savings. What a joke that is.

Allinall

Don’t employ dodgy roofers.

Ever heard of due diligence?

JVince

Those same dodgy roofers are all over the world - mostly Irish and mostly from rathkeake or tuam.

They get away with it everywhere - I think only the Aussies take action.

Punchy21

I accept that to a point. But this fella had ripped down all our fascia boards, soffit and gutters without our authority. Rain was coming the end of the week and we reluctantly felt we had to go with him or the house would get more damage

Punchy21

We were in Australia for 15 years. They don't tolerate any of that rubbish. There should be some sort of regulation brought in to sort it out. We can't keep going with the attitude of accepting that their out there

mickdw

How do you legislate for home owner who decides to .employ someone who ripped down their property without authority yet still decided it was a good idea to.let them.continue.

Gardai should have been called the moment work started that was not approved.

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122723451#Comment_122723451

You employed someone who did criminal damage to your home? Why on earth? You should have been on the phone to guards as he was ripping down your guttering, if he did not have your permission to do so,

Punchy21

I was going to ring the guards that night but panicked with the the bad weather coming and felt we had no choice now but to get it locked up

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122723627#Comment_122723627

Sorry. Do you mean he came along, ripped everything down without permission and you didn't call the guards? Bad weather or no bad weather I just don't buy that.

billyhead

These cnuts are the lowest of the low targeting vulnerable old people who feel forced into paying huge sums of money for damage they deliberately cause.

muffler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122723627#Comment_122723627

Thats no excuse.

You were also quite happy to pay them cash which is ….ahem I'll leave that bit.

Of course you were conned and that is totally wrong and illegal but surely you have to see you played your part in this.

mickdw

I mean you can bring in any laws you.like such as fully licenced and insured contractors only can legally work on a roof, this still won't help when you as an owner allow a randomer to enter your property and start working without knowing who they are etc.

Buddy Bubs

Hold on, which happened first?

Did you give the go ahead to do some work and he took some parts down

Or

Did he just arrive and damage your property and then you employed him to fix it?

CramCycle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122723434#Comment_122723434

It's really shockingly common for Irish people not to do even the basic due diligence such as checking they are insured and provide proof of such.

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122724197#Comment_122724197

It's not just Ireland. The numbers caught by dodgy builders in the UK are staggering.

Economics101

I was told by my electrician that roofing was the one building trade not subject to proper regulation or apprentice training. So the powers that be (whoever they may be in this case) have been chronically negligent.

The amount of damage they "discovered" when doing what was supposed to be a routine job cost me a lot. I suppose I should do more due diligence: easier said than done if you gave to climb up the roof to do it!.

CramCycle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122725044#Comment_122725044

Even simple things like checking they have insurance for the job. Reputation checks are also a good one but the insurance is the one I always start with.

Madd002

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122725044#Comment_122725044

Now you should have put this up first.

The amount of damage they ''discovered'' when doing what was supposed to be a routine job cost me a lot.

This is where they scam you, they tell you it's gonna cost such and such climb up do more damage than good patch it up badly and charge thousands.

I'm sorry but it's your own fault as it's been in papers social media even on here bogus tradesmen. Use common sense next time, no tradesman knock on doors looking for work, work comes to them.

Only the xxxxxxxxxx community do this and badly.

Toby22

Hi, this has been highlighted so many times. I have roofers in the family, great reputation, so much so that they are booked up for months in advance. It’s by word of mouth from builders that they subcontract to, the company that they source materials from, satisfied previous customers. I’ve had many lads call to the door saying your roof tiles are damaged etc, just from looking in from the road, as soon as I mention roofers in the family they scarper.

Economics101

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122727307#Comment_122727307

I won't go into details, but I contacted them for a job, they did not come to me. Of course I should have been muuch more suspicious, but sometimes you get caught out when something needs to be fixed.

As for "fault", there is only one person really at fault: the scammer, not the victim.