CT Roofing (Chris And Tom Roofing) - potential scam - Thomas Smith and Chris Kelsall
We recently had a leak from the roof which made the attic room ceiling and wall get damp after a prolonged period of rain - which is not unusual at this time of the year in the UK.
Having never worked with roofers before we needed some urgent repairs to be done to prevent this leak from further damaging the walls, which also had been recently re-plastered this year.
I posted an ad about this on Bark.com and received several offers, all of which had wildly varying prices.
The one we picked in the end was with CT roofing
They gave us a quote for 400 pounds to repair the chimney, which they said was the cause of the leak.
After I approved them, they made a followup quote for 600, which also included changing the tiles, which I asked them to confirm will be sufficient to prevent further leaks. I asked if they are sure if this will be sufficient and if we see further leaks they will come back to do further work. They assured me that this will prevent further leaks and that it has a 10 year warranty coverage, so I should not worry.
This is how the invoice we received and paid for looked like
After we transferred the first half - 350 pounds, they came up with 250 more to do a repair on the ridge - in a completely different area of the roof - which is meters away from the source of our problem - the chimney.
This angered me a bit and I asked that we first conclude the work that will stop the leak which was agreed and paid for materials - and that we may hire them again in a few month to do the ridge as a separate contract. I demanded that we do not alter what we signed for and finish the work that was agreed and guaranteed. They then told me that the ridge was "just a suggestion" and it wont cause any leaks.
This all was fine and when they came they worked for about half an our after which we paid them the rest of the money - 600 pounds in total as it said on the invoice - all paid to the same account - the one on the invoice. My girlfriend paid the first half and I paid the second half. (I repaid her the 350 after)
The day after it started raining again and unfortunately what had dried up before - the same damp stain appeared on the same wall and ceiling CT Roofing said they had fixed.
I tried calling, but they no longer picked calls and opted to communicate with me only via text messages.
In the text messages I asked that they come back and have another look. He kept insisting (Thomas or Chris - not sure which) now that it must be that ridge that was mentioned earlier as just a suggestion.
I only asked that they first have a another look before concluding it is and to make sure that it is not something covered by their warranty.
He almost had me with the ridge up until the moment that I said that its ok, but if he wants to charge us for another roof job, I will first need to get a second opinion from another roofer..
At that point the conversation went south very quick. He got offended for doubting him and said they are not coming back and will instead do a "payback".
I said that is ok - but they should keep whatever was spent on materials as I dont want them to come back and start taking pieces off my roof. He said no its fine, "we will do a payback". I made the transfer, it will take up to three working days.
I said OK and apologized for it not working out.
A few days after we had another roofer look at this and he basically looked at their photos, looked at what is up there and told us that we had been ripped off - made pictures to prove it too. The chimney just had a bit of cement smeared on the side and was not fixed at all. There were broken tiles and tiles missing - tiles that are on the other end of the so called ridge they insisted to extract more money for.
These are things we paid them to fix and they never did! The second roofer mentioned nothing about that ridge, which had previously became the new cause for the leak.
Surely enough, a week later we saw no refunds. The refund was a lie too. Thomas Smith who received the money has stopped answering to any text messages or calls from me. He had kept the money.
We had to pay the second roofer (Rivive roofing) another 580 pounds to do essentially the same work, but his work did fix the leak. He fixed the chimney and replaced the broken and missing tiles.
My theory is that Thomas Smith and his partner would have continued to extract money from us and keep coming up with new problems without addressing the main one - the leak.
They use selective framing on their photos and can take them after doing anything they like to your roof. Its very easy to invent problems and extract extra money if you stumble upon a bad roofer.
From now on the conclusion for us is that we need to only work with a trusted roofer, someone with multiple positive reviews.
Another idea was to buy a drone and make independent evaluations - to confirm that what the roofer says lines up with the pictures we took before the roofer goes up there.
Be careful when hiring CT Roofing, they are not to be trusted.
Trying to add more fees on a half paid job is a red flag. Changing their story is a red flag.
Lying about the waranty and making conclusions about the problem before inspecting it is a red flag.
Getting angry when your work is to be scrutinized by another expert is a big red flag too.
I am just glad that we did get another roofer to validate if they had addressed what they had addressed in contract and got paid for.
We have the entire text and whatsapp messages discussion recorded and backed up online now. I am investigating other ways and places where we can report this fraud and hopefully prevent others from getting ripped off by these guys.
The fact that they lied so many times and even at the end - about a refund should be proof enough that what they are doing is a scam. They dont fix things, just pretend to be roofers to extract money from people.
Further links reveal full names that match the ones on the invoice
The phone number used in the transaction with them was 07759990256
After trying to post a review on bark.com several times now - I noticed they keep deleting the review and carrying on as if nothing happened. I contacted bark directly to report them about fraudulent activity.
11 nov - Update: It looks like they took down the profile on bark.com, i am assuming they will create a new one.
Here is how they are listed as a company on the government's website:
Regardless of changes to company name, this can be traced back via names and bank accounts (on the invoice)
I notified them that we might raise a claim against them if they lied about that refund. If there is no response in a couple more days - its likely I will meet with my solicitor to discuss this.
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