Someone knocked and said your roof is dangerous: what to do
We do not knock on doors. Here is how to handle somebody who does, what to check while they wait, and where to go if the roof really is unsafe.
Do not let them on the roof, and do not agree to anything on the doorstep. Check the company on Companies House while they wait, get any price in writing, and get a second opinion from a firm you found yourself. If you already signed at the door, you normally have 14 days to cancel.
The short version
- Nobody goes up. Once a stranger is on your roof you cannot see what they are doing, and you cannot check the photographs they bring back down.
- Ask for the company name and number and look it up on Companies House while they stand there. Somebody genuine will wait.
- Nothing gets agreed at the door: no price, no survey, no deposit, no start date.
- If the roof really is dangerous, the council has its own powers to act, and reporting a danger to it is free.
- You cannot report them to Trading Standards yourself. Ring the Citizens Advice consumer helpline on 0808 223 1133 and they pass it on.
Where we stand
We do not knock on doors
We do not knock on doors, and anyone who does is not calling for us. A roofer you found yourself is one you chose, while a stranger on the step chose you, and that difference is what this page is about. None of it is meant as a credential, and the advice below holds whoever is at the door.
Knocking on doors is lawful. Some people who do it are competent and will do you a decent repair. The difficulty is not that a stranger knocked. It is that the doorstep is the one place where you cannot compare anything, cannot check anything and cannot go away and think, and the method depends entirely on that.
The opening lines vary very little. Your ridge is loose and we could see it from the road. We are working two streets away and we have materials left on the lorry. Both are built to get one word out of you, and the word is yes. Yes, have a look.
If you already signed
Signing at the door is not the end of it
Work agreed at your front door or anywhere in your home normally carries a 14 day right to cancel, whether or not you invited the trader, counted from the day after you gave the go-ahead, and the trader has to tell you about it in writing.
The detail, including the urgent-repair exception that catches people who rang a firm out themselves, is in your right to cancel building work agreed at your door, and Citizens Advice sets out how to cancel building work.
That is also why a doorstep caller works so hard to get you to say "come and have a look": it puts them on your property and makes the pressure feel like your idea. It does not take away your right to cancel a contract signed at home.
If work has already started. Photograph it as it stands, from the ground and from an upstairs window, and write down the dates. If it turns into their word against yours, those photographs are the only part of this you control.
On the doorstep
Six things to do while they are standing there
When someone knocks saying your roof is dangerous, do not let them up, do not agree to anything on the doorstep, and check the company on the Companies House register while they wait. The first one carries most of the weight.
- Do not let them up. Not onto the roof, not up a ladder, not for a look, not for free, not for a minute. Once they are up there you cannot see what they are doing, and a photograph of broken mortar handed to you at ground level proves nothing about whose roof it came off.
- Do not say yes to anything on the doorstep. Not a price, not a survey, not a deposit, not a start date. There is no offer that gets worse for being considered indoors with the door shut.
- Ask for the company name and the company number, then look it up while they are standing there. The Companies House register is free to search and it takes about thirty seconds on a phone. You are checking that the company exists, that the name matches, that it is not dissolved and that it was not set up last month. Somebody genuine will wait while you do it.
- Ask for it in writing, posted or emailed. Anything they will only say out loud is something they do not want to be held to later.
- If you have already signed, put any cancellation in writing. Keep a copy and proof of when you sent it. An email is easier to prove than a phone call.
- If they say the roof is dangerous and you cannot see it from the ground, get a second opinion from somebody you approached yourself. Not somebody they recommend, and not the number on the card they left. If it really does look dangerous, the council has powers of its own, which is the next section.
None of that requires you to be rude, or to work out whether the person in front of you is honest. You are not being asked to judge them, only to do everything indoors, in daylight, at your own speed.
The council route
If a roof really is dangerous, the council has powers
A council can deal with a genuinely dangerous roof, and a doorstep caller has every reason not to mention that route. Section 78 of the Building Act 1984 lets a local authority take immediate steps to remove a danger where a building or structure is dangerous and immediate action is needed.
Councils use it for leaning chimney stacks, loose parapets and masonry over a pavement. In Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole that is BCP Council, whose dangerous structures page covers exactly this; elsewhere in Dorset it is Dorset Council.
Point that at the situation on your doorstep. If your roof really is dangerous enough to need work today, the council can be told, and reporting it is free. If the council then does the work itself, section 78(3) lets it recover its reasonable costs from you as the owner, so it is a check on the claim rather than a free repair. If it is not dangerous, it is not an emergency and it can wait until you have two written quotes. Either way the urgency argument stops working, which is why you will not hear about section 78 from the person making it.
Be honest about the other half of this, though. Roofs do fail, and after a gale material does come off. A slipped ridge tile over a front path is a real hazard and ignoring it is not clever either. The question is not whether the problem is real, it is who is telling you and what they get out of it. To check your own roof first, the ground level checks are all here, and what wind actually does to a roof explains why damage is nearly always at the edges, not the middle of the slope. If something has just come off in a storm, work through the first 24 hours before you agree to anything with anyone.
Reporting it
You cannot go to Trading Standards yourself
Reporting a trader to Trading Standards is the thing readers most often get wrong. Consumers cannot report a trader to Trading Standards directly. The route runs through the Citizens Advice consumer service, which takes the report and passes it on. Ringing your council and asking for Trading Standards will get you sent back to the same helpline.
The number is 0808 223 1133, Monday to Friday, nine to five, free from landlines and mobiles, with a Welsh language line on 0808 223 1144. Have the company name, the vehicle registration, the date and what was said. A photograph of the van beats a description.
Report it even if you got rid of them and lost nothing. Trading Standards act on patterns across a street rather than on single incidents, so the report that feels pointless is often the one that corroborates somebody else. The neighbour it matters most for is usually the one least likely to ring.
If somebody will not leave your property, or you feel threatened, that is a police matter rather than a consumer one. Ring 999.
Next steps
What to do now
If somebody is outside right now, the answer is the doorstep list above. Door shut, nothing agreed, name and company number written down.
- If you signed something at the door and want out, check where you stand on cancelling before you ring the trader, and ring 0808 223 1133 if you need advice.
- If work has already started, photograph and date it before anybody comes back.
- Get two written quotes from firms you approached yourself. Our note on what a roofing quote should include lists the line items worth checking, and what is reasonable to be asked for up front covers the deposit question that doorstep work always turns on.
- Only then decide whether the work needs doing at all. Often it does not, or not yet.
If you want somebody to look at the roof properly, that is what our roofing work covers, and you can ask for a visit or send a message when it suits you rather than when somebody is on your path. Thomas comes out himself and puts in writing what he found and what it would take to put right. If it can wait, that is what the report says.
Questions
Common questions
Should I let a doorstep roofer go up and have a look?
No, once somebody is on your roof you cannot see what they are doing, and a photograph of broken mortar handed to you at ground level proves nothing about whose roof it came off. If you are worried, look from the garden with binoculars and get a second opinion from a firm you approached yourself.
How do I check a roofing company while they are on my doorstep?
Ask for the company name and number and search the Companies House register on your phone. It is free and takes about thirty seconds. Check the company exists, the name matches, it is not dissolved and it was not set up last month.
Can I cancel roofing work I agreed at my front door?
Usually, yes. A contract agreed in your home is an off-premises contract under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, so you normally have 14 days to cancel, counted from the day after you agreed it, whether or not you invited the trader. Work you asked to start inside those 14 days can still be cancelled, though you may owe for what was done, and our article on the right to cancel building work explains the urgent-repair exception.
Can I report a doorstep caller to Trading Standards myself?
No, Consumers cannot contact Trading Standards directly. Ring the Citizens Advice consumer helpline on 0808 223 1133 and they pass the report to Trading Standards.
Someone says my roof is dangerous and I cannot see it from the ground. What do I do?
Get a second opinion from a firm you approached yourself, never from a number the caller gave you. If a structure really is dangerous, section 78 of the Building Act 1984 lets the council take immediate steps. Reporting it is free, but if the council does the work it can recover its reasonable costs from the owner under section 78(3).
Read next
Related advice
The guides below pick up where this one leaves off, and the roofing page covers the work itself and the places we cover, if you would rather have the job looked at.
Who wrote this
Thomas Hannen
Thomas owns Bournemouth Roofing & Building and prices every job himself instead of sending somebody else. The company is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, number 15471719, registered in England and Wales. If you want to talk something through before you commit to anything, the site visit and the written itemised quote are both free.
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Thomas comes out himself, goes over the roof properly and puts in writing what he found. If it can wait, he will tell you it can wait.