Woman in Green Valley Ranch warns to be mindful when hiring roofing contractor; "Get more information, before you sign," after bad experience
Experts say hail season in Colorado is also unfortunately scam season.
As hail season continues to unfold, a mother of four in Denver's Green Valley Ranch neighborhood is warning others to be mindful of who they hire for roof repairs.
Etenesh Engedawork has lived in her home in the Green Valley Ranch neighborhood since 2019. Last year, she says she signed a contract with a company after a hailstorm that caused damage to her roof, but it still has not been fixed.
After last week's hailstorm, many residents in the neighborhood said they received door knocks from roofing contractors looking for business. For Etenesh, it was a cold reminder of her bad experience with a roofing contractor and of her roof that is still damaged, even a year later.
Etenesh arrived in the United States on a lottery visa more than 20 years ago. She now has four children, including one with special needs.
"America is the land of opportunity," Etenesh said.
However, in the land of opportunity, she feels taken advantage of after a contractor sold her a dream and did not deliver.
Last year's hailstorm caused significant damage to her roof and her home.
"I did not know about all this process," Etenesh said. "Then, somebody knocked on the door, and they said, 'You have hail damage. We can call the insurance company and fix all your house ... We can even take care of all the paperwork," Etenesh said.
She fell for the contractor's sales pitch and later signed a contingency agreement, trusting that the company would do what she signed up for.
"He was just talking very nice, and then I said, 'OK,"" Etenesh explained.
Documents obtained by CBS News Colorado show, months later, she signed off on the insurance claim, a check for nearly $14,000. She claims she trusted the contractor would fix her roof, but instead, she remained in the dark for months.
We asked Etenesh about any repairs or material the company might have brought out, but she said that was never the case.
"No. No contact," Etenesh said. "I have called, left messages, e-mails, telling them I need to know about my roofing and nobody answered."
After last week's hailstorm, she came across Akeem Norris, a contractor for another company on the hunt looking for business. He says it's not uncommon for contractors to ask potential customers to sign a contingency agreement, which is what Etenesh signed when she met the contractor who was tasked to fix her roof a year ago.
"A contingency contract just protects that contractor, basically saying you're moving forward with that contractor and trust them," Norris said.
However, one red flag that stood out to him from this contractor is asking for a check before any work even began on the customer's roof.
"You have to come out, make attempts to do that work and communicate with the customer on a regular basis," Norris said.
CBS Colorado reached out to the company and asked why the work was delayed. It claimed it was waiting on necessary approval to remove the solar panels from the roof of Etenesh's home.
"The contract for roof replacement was signed in October of last year, with the detachment and reset of the solar panels explicitly excluded from the insurance scope. We advised the client that she would need to wait for us to obtain the necessary approval, or she would have to cover the cost of detaching and resetting the panels herself. She elected to proceed with the latter option," said the company Etenesh contracted last year.
However, frustrated with the back and forth, Etenesh went ahead and hired another company to do the solar panel removing, hoping that would speed up the process with the other company and her roof repairs. Despite her efforts, that was not the case.
"We received the supplemental estimate on April 4th, and subsequently scheduled and signed the solar documentation on April 8th. We informed the client that the installation would occur within the next month, after the panels had been removed and weather permitting. On May 15th, we reached out to notify her that her project was approaching. By May 30th, we informed her that she was fourth on the schedule for the following week. The client responded, "Do your job or return my money." We assured her we would work on getting her moved up to the front," the company said.
But Etenesh was no longer interested in their service. She admits a language barrier might have played a role in her being vulnerable and not completely understanding the contracts or what she was signing, but she is using this experience to warn others.
"Get more information. Just get more and more information before you sign," Etenesh said.
We're choosing not to disclose the company's name; however, it told CBS Colorado it was working with Etenesh and will release her from her contract should she chose that option.
