Hiring a licensed contractor is important, but hiring one that knows what they’re doing - even better!

When it rains, it pours… San Diego had a thunderstorm last week and although that’s not big news for the rest of the country, where we live, it’s an event! Lightening and thunder isn’t something we get to see and hear often in the metro inland, but as a county we actually experience an average of 10-40 inches of precipitation annually from the coast to the mountains, respectively speaking.

The reason why this last rain commanded my attention was because it affected roofs on our primary home as well as a condominium we own. In both instances, the insurance companies told us we weren’t covered because the leaks were the result of shoddy workmanship of when they were constructed and improperly installed tiles by the roofer who worked on our roof last. 

This brings me to why I’m writing about contractor licensing and to talk about my huge disappointment in how it’s enforced or not in this case.  I suspect the roofs were built or worked on by unlicensed employees working under a general contractor’s license.  It doesn’t mean that they knew what they were doing; it only meant that if they injured themselves while working on our roof, that the general contractor’s licensing provided workmen’s compensation insurance and would have covered their employee’s medical expenses. 

It doesn’t matter that the homeowner’s association didn’t clean out the debris or fix the flashing on the roof, so it didn’t divert the rain to the wrong area on the roof. And the worst part is, the properties are old enough where the builders are no longer under the statute of limitations to repair their mistakes. 

Lesson learned, the next time you have to hire a contractor, confirm that the actual person working on your roof has some experience, a licensed contractor would be ideal, but the way the industry is regulated, it’s better to have someone you trust do the work. Get references and check their contractor’s license to see if it’s current. Hiring a licensed contractor is important, but hiring one that knows what they’re doing is even better!