Rogue Roofer at the Door: How to Shut It Down

Somebody knocks. He is polite, he is already in a work van, and he says he noticed a slipped tile or a sagging gutter from the road. He can sort it today while he is here. Then the price moves, the job grows, and by the time you have thought about it properly there is a bank transfer sitting in your statement and nobody answering the phone.

If that is happening now, or happened last week, you have more legal footing than most people realise. This guide is not about how to choose a good roofer. It is about what to say while the van is still outside, and what to do in the days after if you already paid.

At a Glance: Your Position in 2026

While the Van Is Still Outside

There are three separate offences here, and only one is about the roof

Most articles frame the doorstep roofer as a fraud problem, which makes it feel unwinnable. Proving fraud is slow and usually needs other victims. But two of the three criminal exposures on your doorstep have nothing to do with whether the work is any good.

The first is the aggressive practice. Under section 228 of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, a commercial practice is aggressive if it uses harassment, coercion or undue influence, defined as exploiting a position of power to apply pressure in a way that significantly limits your ability to make an informed decision. Section 237 makes that a criminal offence and section 240 sets the maximum at two years and a fine on indictment. The Act tells enforcers to weigh timing and location, threatening language, and whether the practice exploits a vulnerability, which is why standing on an elderly person's path repeating that the roof is dangerous sits squarely inside it.

The second is simpler still. Schedule 20 to the same Act lists practices banned in all circumstances, no balancing test required. Paragraph 27 is "ignoring a request from a consumer to leave or not return to the consumer's home." Paragraph 26 covers creating the impression you cannot leave until a contract is formed. So the sentence "I would like you to leave now, please" is not just an awkward moment. It converts anything that follows into a banned practice carrying the same two year maximum. If he stays after that, call 999.

The third is the paperwork. Regulation 19 of the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 makes it a criminal offence to fail to give you the required cancellation information on an off-premises contract, punishable on summary conviction by a fine at level 5, which since the 2012 sentencing reforms is unlimited. That offence bites whether or not the work turned out fine. Ask on the doorstep for the written cancellation notice. If he has not got one, you have learned what you need to know in about four seconds.

The one move that is worth more than all the advice about cash

The standard warning is to beware of traders who want cash. That advice is out of date, and following it can leave you worse off, because it implies a bank transfer is the safer option. It is not.

Look at the recent convictions. Arthur Draper, sentenced at St Albans Crown Court on 23 January 2026 in a National Trading Standards case, sought £141,900 and obtained around £90,200 by cheque and bank transfer. The Bristol roofing gang sentenced on 10 October 2025 moved more than £370,000 taken from nine homes through multiple bank accounts. Modern doorstep fraud runs on transfers because a transfer is fast, effectively irreversible, and strips you of both Section 75 and chargeback in one move.

So the highest value thing you can do, if you are going ahead with any doorstep job at all, is to pay the deposit on a credit card. Under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, where the item is worth more than £100 and up to £30,000, the card provider is jointly liable with the trader, and paying only the deposit by credit card still covers the entire purchase price. That is an enormous difference for the cost of a few pounds in card fees, and almost no doorstep advice leads with it.

If You Have Already Paid

The 14 days probably has not expired, even if you think it has

Regulation 30 of the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 gives you 14 days from the day the contract is entered into to cancel a service contract agreed away from business premises. That much is well known. Three follow-on rules are not.

First, regulation 31: if the trader did not give you the cancellation information, the period does not start until he does, and if he never does, it runs until 12 months after the original period would have ended. A roofer who handed you nothing has not started your clock, he has extended it.

Second, regulation 36: he must not begin work before the period ends unless you made an express request on a durable medium, and the right is only lost once the service is fully performed on that basis. A man up the ladder the same afternoon rarely clears that bar. If he never gave you the cancellation information, or work was not started on a valid request, regulation 36(6) says you bear no cost at all for work already done, and where a price is excessive regulation 36(5) reduces what you owe to market value.

Third, regulation 32: you can cancel by the model form or by "any other clear statement," so a phone call is legally valid. But regulation 32(6) puts the burden of proving you cancelled in time on you. Put it in writing, send it in a way you can evidence, and keep the proof. Once told, the trader must refund within 14 days and cannot charge a fee for doing so.

The 90 day unwind survived, but not where you would look for it

This is where most competitor advice is now wrong, in both directions. The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 were revoked on 6 April 2025 by section 251(1) of the DMCC Act, so any article telling you the trader commits an offence "under CPUTR" is out of date.

But the obvious correction, that the 90 day right to unwind died with it, is also wrong. The DMCC provisions that were meant to replace the private redress rights, sections 232, 234 and 235, have still not been brought into force. The Competition and Markets Authority's own guidance states that until the replacing statutory instrument becomes law, "consumers will continue to have the rights of redress set out in the CPUTRs, notwithstanding the coming into force of the UCP provisions in the DMCC Act." Business Companion, backed by the Chartered Trading Standards Institute, says the same.

So the accurate position in September 2026 is a split: the offence the roofer commits is under the DMCC Act 2024, and the claim you personally bring is still under CPUTR 2008. Under those redress rights you may unwind the contract within 90 days, or claim a discount, which for work under £5,000 is set at fixed steps of 25, 50, 75 or 100 percent according to seriousness, or claim damages for foreseeable losses beyond the price paid. The trigger is a misleading action or an aggressive practice that was a significant factor in your decision.

Who to call, in what order

You cannot contact Trading Standards directly. Reports reach them through the Citizens Advice consumer service on 0808 223 1133, or 0808 223 1144 in Welsh, Monday to Friday. Citizens Advice is equally clear that Trading Standards will not fix your individual problem or get your refund, so treat that call as reporting rather than recovery.

If a crime is happening now, or the trader will not leave, call 999. Otherwise report fraud to Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040, covering England, Wales and Northern Ireland, or to Police Scotland on 101, with consumer advice from Advice Direct Scotland on 0808 164 6000. For the money itself, go to your card provider, or to your bank's authorised push payment process if you paid by transfer.

Regional Price Differences

There is no national dataset ranking UK regions for doorstep crime, and any article presenting one has built it. Trading Standards is a local authority function, so what exists is a patchwork of councils counting different things: Kent recorded an average loss of £15,700 across 80 victims in 2024, Aberdeenshire logged 93 roofing complaints in 2024 which it said had more than doubled, and Staffordshire reported £23.07 million of detriment prevented in 2025 to 2026. Those are not comparable figures.

What the 2025 and 2026 convictions show is that the relevant region is the gang's touring circuit rather than your postcode. The Bristol case covered Wiltshire, Oxfordshire and Herefordshire, the Draper case spanned Hertfordshire and Nottinghamshire, and a Devon case sentenced at Exeter Crown Court on 5 August 2026 covered Plymouth, Tiverton and Okehampton. Trading Standards Scotland notes doorstep trades cluster in roofing, driveways and gardening, typically in summer and in rural areas.

Where regional variation genuinely matters is in judging whether a price is plausible. MyJobQuote's August 2026 data for a semi-detached gabled roof puts London 25 to 30 percent above the national average at £4,000 to £4,900, the South East at £3,750 to £4,500, the Midlands and South West around the average at £3,250 to £3,750, and the North East and Northern Ireland 10 to 15 percent below at £2,750 to £3,400.

Set that against the doorstep cases. The widest legitimate regional spread is roughly £2,750 to £4,900, about 1.8 times. One Bristol victim was quoted £14,000 then charged £36,500 for supposedly rotten rafters. Rogue pricing is not at the top of the regional range, it is several multiples outside it.

If a doorstep caller has told you your roof is dangerous, get a second opinion from somebody who did not turn up uninvited. Find a trusted local roofer at localroofer.directory and have the roof looked at properly before you agree to anything.

Frequently Asked Questions

He has already started work. Have I lost my 14 day cancellation right?

Almost certainly not. Regulation 36 of the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 only removes the right once the service has been fully performed, after you made an express request on a durable medium and acknowledged the right would be lost. A trader who went up the ladder the same afternoon rarely clears all three. If he never gave you written cancellation information, regulation 36(6) says you bear no cost at all for work already done.

Does my cancellation have to be in writing?

Legally, no. Regulation 32(3) allows the model form or "any other clear statement," so a phone call counts. The trap is regulation 32(6), which puts the burden on you to show you cancelled within the period. Plenty of articles call this a written notice requirement. It is really an evidence problem, and the answer is the same either way: put it in writing and keep proof of sending.

I paid by bank transfer rather than card. Is the money gone?

It is a harder route, but not automatically gone. Section 75 needs a credit card, and chargeback needs a card payment and a claim within 120 days, so neither applies to a transfer. Instead, report it to your bank straight away under its authorised push payment reimbursement process, report to Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040, and pursue the trader under the CPUTR redress rights. Speed matters far more with transfers than with cards.

Can I just tell them to leave, and what if they refuse?

Yes, and it is one of the strongest things you can say. Since 6 April 2025, ignoring a request to leave or not return to your home has been banned in all circumstances under Schedule 20 to the DMCC Act 2024, prosecutable with up to two years on indictment. You do not have to justify the request. Say it plainly, note the time, and if they are still there, call 999.