After severe weather, when you’re looking into storm restoration, it might seem like a merciful twist of fate when that alleged roofing contractor shows up at your door, asking to take a look at your hail damage—but you may want to think twice. After such conditions, it’s all too common for skeevy, borderline fraudulent contractors to prowl the streets, soliciting business from unaware homeowners.
How do you spot these contractors? Why do they do such things? And finally, how can you protect yourself from them? Intelligent Design Corporation, your Maple Grove providers of residential roofing and storm damage repair, has all the answers and more below.
What Are Storm Chasers?
As heroic as this career choice sounds, it’s certainly not an honorable one! Storm chasers, as described above, are roofing companies that go door-to-door after a severe storm, asking for business and citing the presence of hail damage on your roof. They’re so named because they tend to follow weather patterns, showing up wherever their services will be in the most demand.
The problem with storm chasers is in their inherently predatory business approach. Because they’re dependent on the weather, they only have a limited number of clients, which makes them tend to use pushy practices to get you to cave. They also specialize in quick, cheap work, using the dire situation to their advantage—and then they vanish without a trace, following the next storm, leaving you without anyone to hold accountable for their shoddy workmanship.
How Can I Protect Myself From Storm Chasers?
Simple: you know what they tend to do and how they tend to come off. Follow the tips below and your roof—and pocketbook—will be safe from abuse.
Look For Generic-Sounding Names
This rule isn’t a hard-and-fast one; plenty of good roofing companies use names that reference local areas so as to better solicit business from them. But if a company’s name is unusually basic and doesn’t reference overly specific locations, this could be a tactic used by storm chasers to make themselves difficult to find in the future.
Reach Out, Don’t Let Them Reach in
Storm chasing, while lucrative, means that a company will be constantly desperate for clients, so if a roofing company goes door-to-door searching for business, that could be a red flag. You should be the one that chooses your roofing company, not the other way around!
Ask for Credentials
According to Kravelv, a home improvement blog, many storm chasers roll in from out-of-state, therefore not having the proper local credentials for their craft. If you ever find yourself in a position where you’re being pressured to accept service, asking about credentials can help you regain momentum.
Intelligent Design Corporation: Trustworthy, Vetted Restoration Contractors
Need help with your home? Our multi-talented team has the five-star reviews it takes to prove we‘ll get the job done right. Reach our Maple Grove office today at 763-315-0745.