Unfair trade practices in southern Alberta

Dear Editor:

We had a contractor from Lethbridge build our patio. When he was done, I had a nightmare with a leaky roof. Initially, I asked him to build a wooden flat roof, but he insisted on an incline metal roof. The part of the fascia that connects the patio roof was too high and the roof of the patio too low – that causes water to accumulate and remain there, seeping through the fascia. I have lost confidence in the builder, so I did not ask him to fix the leak because he tried to repair it once before and failed.

Therefore, I hired a rookie contractor from Lethbridge, and he overcharged me over and above his quote. Afterwards, he had his crew patch it up with a black roof cement, but when it rained heavily, it sprung a leak and our patio carpet was soaking wet – not to mention the roof insulation. I called the contractor and asked him to come back to fix the leak, but he told me he was not a roofer.

I asked him why he had his crew do the work and he replied, “I wanted to do you a favour.” Unfortunately, the favour was a mess. The black tar was messy and a professional roofer was not sure how to repair it. At first, he refused to return my money, but in the end, he dropped off the money after some persuasion. One bad thing about it was – there were no guarantees. Now that the damage was done, I will hire a professional roofer to fix the leak and hope it will last for a while. In the meantime,

I must wait until he can fix it before the rains come. I checked with the Town of Coaldale to see if the rookie contractor had a business licence and they said there is no record of it. They cannot do anything unless the bylaw officer caught him in the act. They insisted this matter go before the courts. In my opinion, the town should have a watchdog checking to see if they hold a business licence to operate in Coaldale.

Paul Jones

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