A storm chaser roofer is typically an out of town roofing company that comes into the Matthews area after major rain or hail storm.
Some of the things these companies are known for include:
- Scaring homeowners into replacing their roof and filing a claim right after the storm.
- Getting as many jobs as possible and sub-contracting out the work to other companies.
- Hiring cheap, unskilled labor with no prior roofing experience.
- Performing sloppy, sub-standard work.
- Leaving town and refusing to perform any warranty work they promised under the contract.
- Changing their company name multiple times to hide poor reviews or customer complaints.
These storm chaser roofing companies are showing up in large numbers in Matthews and throughout Union County primarily for 3 reasons:
- The average cost of a new roof in Matthews has increased over 50% in the last 5 years to $26,000.
- The hail storm that occurred on 9/7/23.
- Whenever we have a significant amount of sustained rain in the area.
If you sign a roofing contract with any out of town storm chaser roofer, here are some of the issues and warning signs we're seeing in our area:
- Unknown roofers asking if they can come into your house and call the insurance company with you. Don't do this!
- One homeowner found a roofer who climbed up on their roof without permission.
- Companies you've never heard of before will ask you who your insurance company is - don't share this information with them!
- There are about 10 storm chaser roofers actively working in the Charlotte Metro and Union County areas who keep changing their company's name over and over.
- Companies that have actually threatened insurance companies who have refused to pay for roofs that are not a valid insurance claim.
- Storm chasers will buy mixed lots of shingles at a discount or use shingles left over from other projects leaving you with a roof full of shingles that do not match.
- At least 1 of these companies markets themselves as "Veteran Owned". We support veterans but don't be taken in by this if other warning signs are present.
One of the worst things we've seen from storm chaser roofing companies is that some of them have actually deliberately damaged Matthews roofs by creasing or bending shingles in order to get an insurance claim approved.
If they do that to your roof and the insurance company finds out about it, this is considered insurance fraud and that's something you want to avoid at all costs.
Here's the worst part about storm chaser roofing companies. If they do poor roofing work on your roof or skip town, it's difficult to get a complaint logged against them on the Better Business site. And if you are successful reporting a complaint, there's still a high chance that they will change the name of their roofing company and just start over. So the person knocking on your door may have a large number of complaints in their history but you may not be aware of them because their most recently created company doesn't have any complaint history yet.
You have to admit, there is a lot to worry about if you don't know who these storm chaser roofing companies are.
Don't take that chance - work with a local roofer who's been in business over 38 years!
Call High Top Roofing at 704-989-3189 or Request a free estimate today!!
