I'm going to be having a new roof on the house shortly, and I don't want to employ some one without having a clearly defined contract in place.

But having never done anything like this before.. I have no idea where to begin.

Are there any templates out there that I can download, and tweak to suit, and most importantly... it will need to be legally binding in case of any issues.

If a contractor refuses to sign a contract... they won't be hired. Any decent and reputable company would have no qualms about having a contract in place.

A question, rather than answer. Would the roofing contractor not offer a contract for the contract works and you would agree or revise the terms by negotiation ?

When I hired a roofer, they were members of a professional association and their contract terms were standardised, because the works were covered by a 10 year Insurance for the contracted works.

The Insurers only agreed cover per the terms of the contract.

As a consumer my contract terms would be simple and protected by consumer law that applies.

I would not be aware of technical specification of works to meet building regulations and I would expect the roofer to comply with these as an automatic expectation under my consumer law rights.

This would be different if the roofing works were for a business premises.

Yes, it's a nice idea. Prepare a carefully considered contract which contains all the basic terms, refers to all the proper rules and standards for this kind of work and provides in advance as to the remedies which will be applied if anything goes wrong.

Unfortunately it doesn't work that way. The main problem about this kind of thing is that if something does go wrong, how do you enforce the contract? If you are dealing with a small business or even a self-employed independent builder, then if something goes wrong you have the problem of enforcing the contract against that person – if you can find them and of course if they have any assets. If you are dealing with a small business – a limited liability company – then it becomes very easy for that limited liability company to wind itself up for some reason or other and to be inaccessible when it comes to issuing legal proceedings. And even if you issue legal proceedings and you win the case – you then have the problem of enforcing the judgement.

If the builder or the building company has no assets or if it has ceased to exist, then you have a paper judgement which would have cost you some court fees to obtain but it will be worthless.

The only way to really assure your position is to deal with a reasonable sized established company that has premises, employees, – and most of all, a good reputation which it doesn't want to lose by doing bad work or by winding up and then starting again under another name.

Membership of a professional organisation is definitely helpful – but don't imagine that these professional organisations are there to help you. They generally speaking aren't too bothered but they will be helpful in that they will have set up a code of conduct or a set of regulations governing minimum standards which your builder should be adhering to.

The most important thing is to make sure that the work is insured. You may find builders saying that the work they do is insured – and they may even say that they give a lifetime guarantee. Lifetime guarantees are nonsense. How do you enforce the lifetime guarantee? You have exactly the same problem that you have if you simply obtain a judgement. How do you enforce it against a builder who has no assets or you can't trace any more or against a building company which has gone into liquidation. You need an insurance.

We have come across builders who say that their work is insurance backed – but the funny thing is that no one, to my knowledge, ever goes any further and asks for sight of the insurance policy and insurance certificate and then goes on to check with the insurance company that the insurance is actually in place and that will cover the work which is being commissioned and which is the subject of the contract.

As far as I can see this is your one guarantee. Get a reputable builder – whose reputation you can doublecheck – make sure that the work they are doing for you is insured. Ask to see the insurance certificate and the policy – and make sure you get copies. Contact the insurer and doublecheck that the insurance is in place for that builder and for the work which is being carried out. You need to get confirmation of this in writing from the insurer. You don't want later on to find that in fact the insurance had expired or maybe it expired the day before the building work started.

If you are going to instruct a builder who is a small trader, then it is useful to find out a bit about them – where they live, do they own their own home – et cetera. This is the kind of information that a builder might find intrusive and so you would want to try and find out this information as a result of casual conversations.

Insurance is best – but don't simply take someone's word for it.

Look up Harvill Shaw on this forum and elsewhere. I suppose he is out of prison by now.

Thread moved to the appropriate forum...please continue to post here to your thread.

Regards

Andy

If you write a contract for the builder/roofer he will undoubtedly just decline the offer of work.

better off getting a proper quotation (not estimate) from someone who has a good reputation via one of these tradepersons ratings sites or by personal recommendations.

When you invite someone round to have a look at the job see what vehicle they arrive in, if it is a van with the company logo on the side then they are proud to be indentified. If they turn up in a new BMW then ask yourself how they pay for this rather extravagant company vehicle. ask several companies and make sure they give you a full written quote and see if they belong to any trade association like the Federation of master Builders as that give you somewhere to go in the event of a dispute.

Lastly, how do you know you need a new roof rather than remedial work? Leaks dont equal new roof, it tends to be a specific locl problem like flashing around chimney of maybe a couple of broken tiles

Lastly, how do you know you need a new roof rather than remedial work? Leaks dont equal new roof, it tends to be a specific locl problem like flashing around chimney of maybe a couple of broken tiles

We had a leak, and got the insurance involved...

they're trying to wriggle out of sorting it because they're claiming that there's not a singular insurable event...

The claim is that condensation or driving wind/rain has got under the tiles, causing the batons to become damp... which has led to them sagging in a few areas. This then reduces the overlap of the tiles, causing more wind/rain to get in.

The roofing membrane has become brittle as a result and the wind/rain getting in has caused to it tear in many places.

It can't be patched or repaired... everything has to come off, new roofing membrane fitted, new batons and we want new tiles because these ones are now more than 65yrs old,

we'll also be adding vents to avoid any chance of condensation again, and we're redoing the small porch roof to match and adding some insulation in there because we can't get access from inside... average lifespan for the type of tiles on the roof is around the 80yr mark.

Doesn't make sense to replace the roof and not the tiles if they may need doing again in 15yrs.

Doing it now will also add value to the house if/when it's sold.

so why not post this on your original thread the it would be obvious what you wanted and why

Because one is in the insurance section because of the issue with insurers trying to wriggle out of paying for the damage... and this is in the building trades section because it's about building stuff... I kinda thought that much was obvious.