According to a report in the Sudbury (Ontario, Canada) Star a roofer was caught practicing some bad business and wound up in the pokey for 30 days. Seems he took a homeowner’s money as a deposit for work he never managed to begin.

According to a report in the Sudbury (Ontario, Canada) Star a roofer was caught practicing some bad business and wound up in the pokey for 30 days. Seems he took a homeowner’s money as a deposit for work he never managed to begin.

After this crook (I take issue with the paper, which erroneously called the crook a roofer) serves his term he will be required to repay the homeowner plus a fine amounting to another 1 1/2 times that amount and serve a year of probation. I cannot imagine what they will do to him if he fails to pay the money back or the fine. Probably hand out some hard time.

Well, I think those of us south of the border can take a civics lesson from this. There are laws on our books that would mete out similar penalties, but you seldom hear of such judgments. Is the bad-guy business just slow in Sudbury? Do they have better police protection due to their previously collected fines? Where I live, if there is not (lots of) blood or bullets all over the place, the authorities will not investigate, much less prosecute, such behavior.

That is a shame, because theft is theft no matter what. I will agree that it is worse when the crook holds a gun to your head, but taking a homeowner’s money for roofing work not performed is no different than showing up for a roofing job and instead breaking into and stealing the family sedan.

The real problem that gives us a bad name is roofers who put themselves forward as professionals with credentials when they are not. They take homeowners’ money after having done inferior work that is able to pass but later fails miserably in the first severe winter or after too-few seasons of life. There are laws on the books to protect consumers from this sort of scoundrel, and many consumers assume they are protected. But it simply is not so.

So, the best thing you can hope to do (as a legitimate professional roofing contractor) is to keep your own house in order and deliver on your promises. Keep up your credentials and insurance and make a profit on your work so you can continue to back the work you have completed and will complete. And invite your potential customers to check you (and your competition) out carefully. Do not just tell them to check you out - show them how to do it.

In a perfect world, cheaters never prosper and all the bad guys go to jail. That may not be the world we live in, but I think there will be justice. Not every time and not right now. It is not part of my Christian upbringing or faith; but I bet there is a special place in hell for individuals who call themselves roofers while stealing from trusting homeowners.