Handling Storm Damage and How to Avoid “Storm Chasers”
Strong storms can leave serious consequences on your house putting at risk your family and goods. These situations are among the worst homeowners having to face. You must ensure your family security and seek temporary shelter. Besides, you must document damages to your insurance provider.
Unscrupulous adventurers may try to offer you supposed roofing services only to get money from you in this difficult moment. Therefore, when it comes to deal with storm damages, it is very important to hire professional roofing contractors.
This is the first part of a two-part blog in which we talk about this topic.
We will start by defining what “storm chasers” are and why you should avoid them.
What Are Storm Chasers?
Someone knocks on your door telling you that can repair that big damage the last storm left on your roof. Then, they go with your money without doing the repairs. On the other hand, they do a bad job and make things worse. These are the so-called “storm chasers”.
A desperate homeowner dealing with severe storm damages can be the perfect victim of these false roofing contractors. They are traveling “roofers” looking for unwary homeowners from towns hit by strong storms. Storm chasers take advantage of desperate homeowners needing roofing works who don’t know who to turn to.
Storm chasers do not stay in a place for long. Due to the nature of their business, they will likely leave your community within a few months. Thus, they have no loyalty or roots in the community.
If the amount of work in the area decreases or another big storm hits another town, they will leave. Besides, many times they leave without completing the job they started. Even they take deposits and do not run the work at all.
How to recognize storm chasers
• With storm chasers, you won’t find a way for checking customers’ references and feedback. They surely are not registered in the Better Business Bureau nor have a state license to work.
• You won’t get a quality guarantee for your roofing work since they don’t have a physical address or a permanent phone number.
• The supposed contractors appear in distant areas from their residence places and work from their vehicles.
• Generally, they lack the necessary insurance and certifications.
• They charge in cash to avoid paying taxes or employment benefits.
• Storm chasers don’t concern about local building code requisites. If you hire them, you will have to hire local professional roofers later to correct errors.
• Their bad work will void your roofing warranty and insurance coverage.
The Dangers of Working with Storm Chasers
As you can see, there are many reasons to hire professional roofers and not allow storm chasers to work on your property. In this sense, the poor-quality “service” they provide gives you a false sense of security. They know how to disguise their bad work to make it look like professional work. You may think your roof will resist the next storm, but actually, it will not.
In conclusion, working with storm chasers only will make your roofing problems worse. In our next blog, we’ll show you the advantages of hiring a licensed and insured roofing contractor. Meanwhile, you can learn more about our roofing services.
Call Kreunen Construction today at (901) 329-1591 or fill out our contact form and schedule a free estimate. We serve Olive Branch, MS, and nearby areas, Memphis, Tennessee.
