How to complain about a roofer

1Start with a written, dated complaint

A phone call leaves nothing you can later point to. Write to the roofer by email or letter, and keep a copy. Name the job, the day it finished, what is wrong and when you first noticed it. Attach dated photographs, the quote and the invoice. Stick to facts a stranger could check: a stain on a bedroom ceiling after the first heavy rain, a ridge tile that has slipped, a flashing that has lifted.

Then say what you want. A request such as "please return to repair the ridge and confirm a date" gets a better response than a general expression of anger. Allow a reasonable time for a reply and note the day you sent it.

If water is coming in while you wait, get the roof made safe, keep every receipt and photograph, and tell the first roofer in writing why you did so. Water that keeps entering a house does more harm the longer it goes on, and the argument over who should have fixed it can wait. Our home page sets out how we go about finding the way in.

2Your right to have the work done again

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 gives you a firm footing. Section 49 sets the standard for any service at reasonable care and skill. Section 54 covers your remedies when that standard is missed, and among them is the right to require repeat performance. Put simply, you can ask the trader to redo the job properly.

This is the right to cite. A leak after a roof repair, tiles that lift in the next gale, a lead flashing that was never dressed into the wall: each is a fair ground for asking that the work be put right. Describe the fault and name the right, so the reply cannot treat your letter as a favour.

Say too if the job was meant to satisfy the Building Regulations. Some roof work is notifiable, and the roof regulations guide explains when. A roofer who cannot produce the sign-off for notifiable work has one more question to answer.

3What the roofer must say about dispute resolution

When a complaint reaches a conclusion, the trader has a further duty. Section 308 of the 2024 Act on digital markets, competition and consumers came into force on 6 April 2026. When a trader gives the outcome of your complaint, it must also tell you about any alternative dispute resolution, or other arrangement, available if you remain dissatisfied.

The earlier regime, the Alternative Dispute Resolution Regulations 2015, was revoked on 6 April 2026, so older websites that quote it are out of date. Read the final reply for that information. If it is missing, point this out in your next message.

Be clear about the limits. The duty does not force a roofer to join a scheme, and it does not decide who is right. It makes sure you hear about the next step before you give up.

Keep your messages short and your timeline tidy. A clear chain of dated emails and photographs is what an independent body will ask to see first.

4Reviews: posting one, and spotting a fake

When the dispute ends, many people want to post a review. Describe what happened, give dates, and stay with what you saw. A plain account of a roof that leaked and a repair that was or was not made needs no drama.

The law now takes fake reviews seriously. Schedule 20 to that 2024 Act lists commercial practices that are unfair in every circumstance. Paragraph 13, in force since 6 April 2025, bans a fake review, whether the trader wrote it or paid someone else to, and a review that conceals the reward behind it. Publishing reviews in a misleading way is covered as well.

That works in both directions when you choose a roofer. A page of glowing reviews that read alike, or a reward offered for a kind word, deserves a second look. A local roofer you can find, call and visit is easier to hold to account than a name that exists only online.

5Keep the evidence and know the limits

Photographs taken on the day, the original quote, the invoice, the dates of each message, and a written report from a second roofer on the cause of the fault: together they make the file that counts. Ask the second roofer to say what they found and why, not to assign blame.

Know where the line falls on cancelling. You have 14 days to cancel a contract agreed at your home, but a call-out you requested yourself for an urgent repair sits outside that right. Cancelling is a separate matter from complaining about poor work, which carries on after the 14 days under the rights above.

If scaffolding was part of the job, the scaffold firm holds the highway licence and is the one to ask about it; the scaffold licence page explains who is responsible. Unfamiliar terms in a report are explained in the roofing terms glossary.