‘They took advantage of me’: Ontario man warns of alleged fake roofing crew

A senior citizen in midtown Toronto says he wants to warn the public about an alleged door-to-door roofing scam.

Stuart reached out to Global News with his story last week. For the safety of him and his friends, Global News is not publishing last names or the street where they live.

Two weeks ago, the senior was having a quiet day at home when there was a knock on the door.

“There was these two guys, Michael and Tom, that were at the door,” he said.

“They said they were working across the street and had seen some issues on my roof, and ‘Can we go up and look?’”

Stuart, who has hearing, memory and mobility issues, says that he let the men into his house and that they immediately went onto his roof.

“I heard a bunch of banging upstairs. … It was heavy, heavy duty banging.”

Stuart said the roofers originally gave him a quote of about $4,700 to fix his roof, but upon returning the next day, told him there was much more damage than originally thought. He said they even used what he and his neighbours believe in hindsight was a stuffed raccoon to convince him that they had found it dead under his roof.

“They took me to the basement basically … and were saying, ‘Well, there’s all this damage, we’ve got to redo it.’ So the contract that I’d signed was at that point null and void and so it’s going to be about a $150,000 repair, which is a nonsense price.”

They eventually lowered their price to $80,000 then $75,000 according to Stuart, which he accepted. He was unable to take that amount of money out of the bank, though.

Stuart says once it became evident there was no easy money to be taken from him,  the roofers stopped coming around.

He says he soon learned they had left his roof with a massive gaping hole, exposing the space below it down to the beams. Stuart says they had even left behind the sledgehammer they used to make the hole, and the ladder they used to get to his roof.

Making matters worse, heavy rainfall moved through the area the next day.

Stuart’s good friend Carol and neighbour Kathy provided Global News an audio recording of their last phone call with the roofers, in which they claimed they would be over to place a tarp over the hole, but Stuart’s friends say they never showed.

Kathy was able to hire another team of roofers to install a cover at the last minute during the storm.

“They worked in the dark, in the driving rain, to set up a good tarp so that the hole was efficiently protected,” she told Global News.

However, a lot of damage was already done.

Carol showed Global News several areas where water had seeped through and into Stuart’s home, pouring out of a light fixture above of his bed.

“It was just a steady stream,” she recalled.

Water also leaked through a seam in the drywall ceiling above his living room. Most of his home is now covered in clear plastic drop sheets just in case any residual water leaks.

While the roofers didn’t get any money from him, he’ll still incur heavy costs to pay for the damage left behind.

Stuart says he believes he fell for a scam and tells Global News he feels “like a moron.”

The flyer and bill the roofers left at Stuart’s house have logos and contact information for a company called Greater Toronto Roofing & Construction. It’s one of multiple roofing companies in the city with the term “Greater Toronto” in its name. Carol believes it was used intentionally as a way to blend in with legitimate businesses that have similar names.

Greater Toronto Roofing & Construction’s website touts itself as having “45 Years Experience. Budget Friendly Solutions,” encouraging potential customers to contact the company for a free estimate.

Global News called three different phone numbers associated with the company on Friday afternoon. Two of them led to voicemail boxes. Messages were left but no one called back. The third number does not connect at all.

The address given in the company’s materials leads to a property up for sale in an industrial area near Keele Street and Lawrence Avenue West. Now vacant, it was formerly a dry cleaner. There is no sign of any roofing operation there or at any of the properties nearby.

Stuart, Carol and Kathy filed a report with Toronto police. A police spokesperson told Global News the investigation is “currently open and being actively investigated.”

His ego bruised, Stuart takes no pleasure in telling his story publicly, but hopes it can serve as a warning to others.

“It was well thought out. … They took advantage of me.”

&© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.