My wife and I signed a contract on January 7 with Speigel Roofing, 7200 S. Orange Avenue, Orlando, Florida 32809 to remove and replace roofing materials on three (3) structures (main house, cottage, garage) on our property that had been damaged during the 2004 hurricane season. The Speigel representative was Beau Welch. One of the most important stipulations to the contract (beyond the quality of the materials and workmanship) was that the job would be completed prior to April 2, the date of our daughter's wedding that was to be held at our home. Beau assured us verbally that the roofing work would be completed well ahead of that date.in reliance on his promise that the work would be completed prior to April 2, we signed the contract for roofing installation.
Three months went by and the work still had not commenced. We had kept in contact with Beau as to the status of the project during that time; most of the time, the calls were not returned, but when he did return the calls, he said he would check into the status of the project. He would give us different reasons each time as to why they hadn't begun work. Beau would say that there were permitting delays, or that the 40-year shingles that were stipulated in the contract weren't available; then the next time he would say that the hip and ridge material was not available. Prior to signing the contract, Beau had assured us that there would be no problems getting the materials. We finally placed a call in late March to a Certainteed company representative, who indicated that the 40-year hip and ridge material was indeed available in the southeast. We confronted Beau with this information, and he was perturbed that we had checked on the availability. Further calls to him went unanswered.
(Note: When we first questioned Beau about the reason for the delays, he said they had the shingles, right out in their storage area, but the hip and ridge material had come in the wrong color, so they had to send it back and waited for the right color. After waiting weeks on that, we called Certainteed (the shingle manufacturer). They said that the shingles were hard to come by in the 40-year stock but there were plenty of the hip and ridge in all colors. That is when Beau got upset.
When Speigel finally delivered the shingles, they were the 50-year shingles, we questioned the man working the job, and he kind of chuckled about them having the 40-year shingles 'on hand' for us for weeks. (But he wouldn't come right out and admit that Beau had lied).
The last call to Beau prior to April 2 was placed on March 30 by us that was unanswered. Since we now knew that the work would not be completed by the date that Beau had agreed to, we sent him a letter stating that if the roofing work was not completed on all structures with the agreed upon materials within fourteen (14) calendar days of the letter (dated April 8), that we then considered that Speigel Roofing had broken the contract and we would consider it null and void.
Speigel roofing left a message on our machine on April 20 saying they would be at the house either that day or the next to start work, but they never showed up. April 22 was the deadline, and we heard nothing further from Speigel, and no one showed up to commence work.
On April 28, we had another roofing contractor give us a quote for metal roofing to be installed.
The week after that, sometime in early May, the Speigel roofers showed up unannounced and began stripping the roof. I was notified that they were at our house, so I drove home and told the crew chief to stop work since we considered the contract to be null and void, and that we were going to have a metal roof put on. The crew chief called Beau, who proceeded to tell us that if they stopped work, we would still be charged for the contract. After arguing with him, and since much of our roof had already been stripped, I allowed the work to continue.
Beau's manager had threatened my wife with a lawsuit, and that they had "taken cases all the way to the Supreme Court" and won, and that we would have to pay for the whole job. Then he backed down and said we would have to pay for the work they had done and all the shingles that were delivered, that maybe we could resell them to get some of our money back.
Speigel also said that we only had ten days to pay their bill before they started charging interest, but we didn't have any rain to check on their job before we had to pay.
Once the roof on the main house and cottage were removed, there was wood that needed replaced, so I personally bought the wood at Home Depot out of my own pocket for the roofers to install. At no time did the roofers use wood that they provided. The roofers finished work in mid- May. After the work was completed we mailed Speigel a check for the full amount ($11,000) and the check cleared. We then received an invoice from Speigel dated 5/19 billing us extra for wood replacement and extra shingles. (see attached invoice). I questioned Beau on this, since I had provided the wood, and that the original quote should have included sufficient shingles. He ended up not charging for the additional work.
June was one of the rainiest months on record, and the new roof on the main house leaked more than it ever had during the hurricanes. I called Beau, and eventually they sent out repair crews. The leaks continued through June, and in July I began logging all the calls to Beau regarding the roof leaks.
Occasionally they would send out a repair crew to apply patch to the shingles, but the roof continued to leak in several places, including around the chimney, which was constantly leaking. This went on throughout the summer and into fall. Finally in August, our daughter (a realtor in Lakeland) called Beau's supervisor David Arnett and told him that if the roof was not repaired correctly, she would file complaints with the DBPR, the Orlando Board of Realtors, and Newschannel 8.
I placed a follow-up call to Arnett that day and told him that if the roof was not 100% repaired this time, that I was initiating formal action against the company. (Note: on several occasions during this time, when we realized that Beau had been lying to us, I called the main office number and asked to speak with Beau's supervisor or a manager, but the receptionist always refused to put me or my wife through; her stock answer was that we had to deal with Beau).
Although we didn't see any repair crews that day, there was evidence that the roof was worked on in the form of bits of tar paper and roofing nails on the driveway, and new flashing had been installed around the chimney. During occasional light rains we noticed that the chimney was no longer leaking, however, during the rains from Hurricane Wilma, we found 2 areas that had been leaking in the past were still leaking.
I began initiating calls to Beau on October 25, but his cell phone was not in service; I called Speigel's main office and got a recording. I left messages each day the rest of that last week of October, and even sent a fax to their office.
On Friday, October 28, we discovered on on-line article that Speigel Roofing had their permit suspended in Punta Gorda for shoddy workmanship and using wrong materials.
At that point, I called Speigel's office and left a message for William Speigel to call me about the leaks in the roof or I would initiate legal action against him. My wife also called and told them to call my cell phone if there wasn't an answer on the home phone.
As of this date, Thursday, November 03, the main office number has a full voicemailbox, Beau's cell number is still out of service, and I have not received any communication of any kind from any Speigel representative, nor have the roof leaks been repaired.
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