Western Sydney homeowners are being warned to look out for door-knocking tradespeople after two vulnerable pensioners came close to financial ruin.
Dominic and Barbara May wish they’d never trusted the men who knocked on the door of their Winston Hills home in April.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Homeowners on alert for dodgy door-knocking tradies.
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“They constantly gave up the up-sell. We jumped from cleaning the gutters, to repairing the gutters, to replacing the roof,” Dominic said.
The mother and son say there were told they had active termites.
Half of their roof was ripped off and a worker put a foot through the ceiling.
“You feel stupid for falling for these kinds of things,” Dominic added.
The pair got their deposit back but were left with a $20,000 damage bill.
Licenced roof restorer, Beau South, offered to replace the tiles free of charge.
“[There was] no evidence of termites at all.”
South says he has done 17 similar jobs for older people who have been ripped off.
“I was more than happy to put a few jobs on hold and restore it for free,” he said.
“People need to be aware that it can be a cowboy industry.”
Brian Seidler from Master Builders warns never to accept tradespeople on face value.
“If they say they have just come from a home in the area, ask for the recommendation. The Office of Fair Trading makes it quite easy to search for licence numbers,” he said.
“The majority of builders and tradespeople are good. It is unfortunate that some of them make it bad for a lot of us in the industry.”
The Mays can’t afford a lawyer and are still saving to fix their guttering.
“It really messes you up for a long time,” Dominic said.
