What to Do When a Roofer's Work Is Defective

The scaffold came down three weeks ago and there is already a damp patch on the landing ceiling. The roofer has stopped answering. You want your money back and you certainly do not want him back on the roof.

That instinct is completely understandable, and it is also the thing that most often goes wrong. The law does not give you a right to reject roofing work the way it gives you a right to return a faulty kettle. It gives you a ladder, and the rungs have to be climbed in order unless you can explain why the first one is unavailable. Here is how it actually works.

At a Glance: Your Options and What They Cost

Repeat Performance First, Money Second

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 section 49 treats every contract to supply a service as including a term that the trader must perform it with reasonable care and skill. When they have not, section 54 opens two statutory remedies.

Section 55 is repeat performance: the right to require the trader to perform the service again to the extent necessary to complete it in conformity with the contract, within a reasonable time and without significant inconvenience to you, with the trader bearing all costs including labour and materials. Section 55(3) removes the right where completing performance in conformity is impossible.

Section 56 is price reduction, by an appropriate amount including a refund of anything paid above the reduced amount. The refund is due without undue delay and in any event within 14 days, by the original payment method, with no fee charged.

The order matters. Business Companion, the Trading Standards guidance site, reviewed in June 2026, sets out the gate plainly: price reduction is available where repeat performance is impossible, cannot be done within a reasonable time, cannot be done without significant inconvenience, the service was not completed in a reasonable time, or the breach concerns section 50 information about non-service matters. It also confirms what nobody wants to hear, which is that there is no statutory right to reject a service. The 30 day right to reject in section 22 sits in the goods chapter, so it can apply to defective materials supplied under the contract but not to the labour.

The practical consequence is the single most useful sentence in this article. If you do not want that roofer back on your roof, you need to be able to say why repeat performance is impossible or would cause you significant inconvenience. Write that reason down at the time, with dates. Otherwise you are not yet entitled to jump straight to money, and a court will notice.

Price reduction, when you reach it, can be anything from 0% to 100% of the contract price depending on how serious the failure is.

Get the evidence before you get angry

An independent survey is what turns "it looks wrong" into a case. MyJobQuote, updated 25 August 2026, puts a roof survey at £300 on average with a range of £100 to £500, a basic visual inspection at £100 to £200, a full roof report at £250 to £400, a drone inspection at £200 to £350 and a thermal or moisture scan at £300 to £500. Checkatrade's roof inspection guide gives an average of £250 and a survey at £275 to £500, though note its page is badged 2026 while its own last-updated date is 2 July 2025.

Two rules make this money well spent rather than wasted. In the small claims track, Practice Direction 27A caps the expert's fees you can recover from the other side at £750 per expert, a figure unchanged since April 2023. And under Civil Procedure Rule 27.5 no expert may give evidence at a hearing without the court's permission, which you have to ask for. So a £300 to £500 roof report sits comfortably inside the recoverable ceiling, while a £1,500 report leaves you £750 down even when you win. Which?, in guidance updated 8 December 2025, also suggests trying to agree with the builder who should provide the report.

The 90 Day Rule Everyone Thinks Was Repealed

Since 6 April 2025 the legal press has been full of the news that the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 replaced the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008. Criminal enforcement did move: DMCC section 225 prohibits unfair commercial practices, section 237 creates the offences, section 240 carries up to two years' imprisonment on indictment, section 241 gives a three year prosecution window, and Trading Standards enforce it.

The private right of redress did not move. SI 2025/272 commenced Part 4 Chapter 1 except sections 232, 234 and 235. A point-in-time check of section 232 on legislation.gov.uk still shows it as prospective in September 2026. Section 233, which would create the new rights, is a discretionary power for the Secretary of State to make regulations, and none have been made. Section 251, which revokes CPUTR 2008, has not been commenced, and legislation.gov.uk shows the 2008 Regulations as still in force.

The CMA says so itself, in guidance CMA207 published in December 2025: "Consumers currently have private rights of redress for certain infringements of the CPUTRs. The DMCC Act provides for these to be replaced by new arrangements that will be detailed in a new statutory instrument. Until that new statutory instrument becomes law, consumers will continue to have the rights of redress set out in the CPUTRs."

So the remedy is alive. It applies where there was a consumer contract or payment, the trader engaged in a misleading action or an aggressive practice (a misleading omission does not count), and that practice was a significant factor in your decision. Doorstep pressure and false claims about accreditation are the classic roofing versions.

Regulation 27E(3) then gives you a right to unwind the contract within "the period of 90 days beginning with the later of (a) the day on which the consumer enters into the contract, and (b) the relevant day", the relevant day for a service being the day the service begins. Unwinding means a full refund even though you may have received some benefit from the work.

That start date matters more than any other detail here. Nearly every article says 90 days from purchase. If you signed in March and the roofer started in June, your clock runs from June. Below £5,000 there is also a right to a discount in fixed bands from 25% for more than minor problems up to 100% for the most serious; above £5,000 the price is reduced to market price where you overpaid. You cannot claim both unwind and discount for the same practice.

Escalating in the right order

Trade bodies help, but they close early. The NFRC offers a free reconciliation service with acknowledgement within 48 hours on working days, and can refer members to its Complaints Committee for Code of Practice breaches. It explicitly cannot help where the company has left membership or was not a member when the work was done, where you are seeking compensation or a financial award, where solicitors or Trading Standards are already involved, or where the work was completed over four years ago.

Your contract claim, meanwhile, lives for six years in England and Wales under section 5 of the Limitation Act 1980, and five years in Scotland under section 6 of the Prescription and Limitation (Scotland) Act 1973. The trade body route therefore shuts two years before your legal route does, and complaining to a trade body does not stop the limitation clock. TrustMark's process, updated 7 April 2026, runs complaint to the business, then Scheme Provider with 30 days to investigate, then the Dispute Resolution Ombudsman, which must be reached within 12 months of your initial complaint and once you have a final response or 12 weeks have passed.

If a claim does end up in court in England and Wales, mediation is compulsory and free for disputed claims of £10,000 or less. GOV.UK is blunt that not attending can see your case struck out or costs ordered against you even if you ultimately win.

Regional Price Differences

Two things vary by region here, and they pull in opposite directions.

The work does. MyJobQuote's table, updated 26 August 2026, puts a semi-detached gabled roof replacement at £4,000 to £4,900 in London, 25% to 30% above the national average, against £2,750 to £3,400 in the North East and Northern Ireland, 10% to 15% below. Its repair guide, updated 27 August 2026, shows the same pattern: minor repairs £150 to £400 UK-wide against £200 to £550 in London and the South East, roof leak repair £150 to £1,200 against £250 to £1,300.

Court fees do not vary at all. The England and Wales issue fee (GOV.UK EX50, updated 13 July 2026) is £205 between £3,000 and £5,000, then jumps to £455 between £5,000 and £10,000, with the small claims hearing fee at £181 up to £3,000 and £346 above it. That fixed structure lands much harder on a smaller bill. A £2,750 North East roof failing entirely sits below the £3,000 step and costs £115 to issue plus £181 to be heard. The same job in London at £4,900 crosses into different bands. Nobody makes this point, and it changes whether a claim is worth bringing.

Claim limits also differ by nation: £10,000 on the small claims track in England and Wales, £5,000 under Scotland's simple procedure, and £5,000 in Northern Ireland.

Need a second opinion on work that has gone wrong? Find independent local roofers at localroofer.directory and ask for a written condition report you can use as evidence, not just a quote to put it right.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I demand a refund and get a different roofer in?

Not straight away. The Consumer Rights Act gives no right to reject a service. You must first offer repeat performance under section 55, at the trader's cost, unless you can show that putting it right properly is impossible, cannot happen in a reasonable time, or cannot happen without significant inconvenience to you. If one of those applies, you move to price reduction under section 56, which can be anything up to 100% of the price, refunded within 14 days.

How much roofing work goes wrong in the UK?

Citizens Advice recorded almost 37,000 home repair complaints in 2025 in its press release of 7 July 2026, alongside polling of 5,000 adults finding one in four homeowners had a problem with their most recent repair and an average loss of £750. A Freedom of Information analysis of the same Citizens Advice data, reported by Roofing Today on 6 February 2026, put the total at 39,863 with roofing, roof sealing and chimney repairs the single largest category at 7,854, down 14.5% on 2024. The two totals differ, so treat the figure as roughly 37,000 to 40,000.

What does it cost to take a roofer to the small claims court?

In England and Wales, a £6,000 claim costs £455 to issue plus a £346 hearing fee, both recoverable from the roofer if you win. Below £3,000 the hearing fee is £181, and the issue fee ranges from £35 up to £205 depending on value. Mediation beforehand is free and compulsory for disputed claims of £10,000 or less. Expert fees are recoverable only up to £750 per expert, and only with the court's permission to rely on the evidence at all.

Does paying a deposit by credit card help?

Yes, and more than most people realise. Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 makes the card issuer jointly and severally liable with the trader, and section 75(3)(b) applies the £100 to £30,000 test to the cash price the supplier attached, not the amount you charged to the card. The Financial Ombudsman Service confirms it applies even where you made only part of the payment on credit. Chargeback, by contrast, is a card scheme rule rather than law, runs to around 120 days, and works on debit cards too.