Roofer Made My Leak WORSE - Now I Have Water Damage Inside (2025)

I am LIVID right now. Hired a roofer last week to fix a small leak over my garage. He came out, did some work, said it was fixed, and LEFT. Charged me $1,800.

Two days later we got rain. Not only is the original leak STILL THERE, but now I have water coming into my LIVING ROOM ceiling. The roofer damaged my house - he pulled up shingles and just threw a tarp over them but didn't secure it properly. Wind blew the tarp partially off and rain got under everything.

Now I have:

• Water stains spreading across my living room ceiling
• Wet insulation in the attic (I can see it dripping)
• The original garage leak is worse than before
• Drywall starting to bubble in one corner

I called him and he said "that's not my fault, that was the storm" and hung up on me. Won't return my texts. This is roofing contractor negligence plain and simple!

What are my options here? This is California if that matters. I can't afford to pay another contractor to fix his mess AND the new damage.

I'm sorry this happened to you. Unfortunately, this is a classic case of roofing contractor negligence. Let me explain your legal position:

Why the contractor is liable:

First step: Check if he's actually licensed. Go to the CSLB website and look him up. If he's unlicensed, you have additional remedies and he cannot sue you for payment.

Update from the OP. I looked him up on CSLB like you all said and his license is ACTIVE but I found out the hard way he only listed me as a verbal agreement. No written contract for an $1,800 job, which I now know is a violation in CA.

I got a restoration company out the next day to tarp it properly and dry the attic. They billed my homeowner's insurance directly. Adjuster is coming Thursday. I also pulled three written estimates from other roofers like morgan_r_12 suggested. Highest is $6,200 to redo the whole section plus the interior drywall and ceiling.

Sending him a certified demand letter this week. Will report back.

The no-written-contract thing is bigger than people realize. From what I understand, in California any home improvement job over $500 is supposed to have a signed written contract with specific disclosures. When a contractor skips that, it tends to weaken his position a lot if this ever goes in front of a judge or the bond company.

Save every text and voicemail. The 'that was the storm' text where he basically admits he was the last one on the roof is gold.

Roofer of 18 years here. What he did is called a dry-in and if you tarp a roof you secure the tarp with battens or sandbags and run it over the ridge, you do not just lay it flat over pulled shingles. A wind-blown tarp letting water in is on him, not the storm. Storms are exactly why you secure the tarp.

One thing nobody mentioned: pull the dripping insulation out fast and run fans. Wet cellulose or fiberglass holds water against your drywall and ceiling joists and you get mold in about 48 to 72 hours. The mold remediation will cost you more than the roof if you let it sit.

Question for the group because I am in a similar spot. My roofer also has an active license. Does the $25,000 bond morgan_r_12 mentioned still help me if he technically has a license, or is the bond only for unlicensed guys?

I always thought the bond was the unlicensed-contractor remedy and I am confused now.

The bond is actually for LICENSED contractors. It is a condition of holding the license. The whole point is that if a licensed contractor does bad work or violates the contractor laws and won't make it right, you have a fund to claim against. Unlicensed people don't post the bond at all.

Heads up though, the bond pool is limited and other claimants can be ahead of you, so it is not guaranteed you get the full amount. In my case it covered most but not all of my repair. Treat it as one tool, not the whole solution.

Following up on my earlier post, a few corrections and additions now that more facts are in. This is general information and not legal advice, and every case turns on its own facts.

First, kevin.obrien is right that the licensed contractor bond and the small claims route are both available even when the license is active. They are not unlicensed-only remedies. Second, on damages, many states including California allow you to recover the cost to repair the defective work plus the consequential damage it caused, here the interior water damage, when the contractor's negligence is the cause. Causation is the battleground, so the restoration company's report and any roofer's written opinion that the tarp failed because it was improperly secured will matter a lot.

Practical sequence I would generally suggest: document, mitigate immediately, send a certified demand with a firm deadline, then pursue insurance subrogation, the bond, and small claims in parallel rather than waiting on any single one. Watch your deadlines, since the statute of limitations for this kind of claim varies and you do not want to let it run.

Also file a complaint with CSLB itself. Separate from the bond claim. They have a complaint and arbitration process and a contractor with a pattern of complaints can lose the license. Even just the threat of a CSLB complaint moved my guy to settle because licensed contractors do not want that on their record.

It is free to file. Took me about 20 minutes online.

One caution on the insurance path. When my insurer paid for water damage and then subrogated against the contractor, the deductible was mine to eat unless they recovered the full amount, and they recover the deductible for you only if subrogation succeeds. Ask your adjuster directly how they handle the deductible on a successful subrogation. Mine eventually refunded it but it took months.

Also ask whether the claim will be coded in a way that affects your renewal. A single water claim sometimes does.

Any movement after the demand letter? Curious how he responded. I am drafting mine now and trying to figure out what deadline to give. 10 days like morgan said, or longer?

One thing that tripped me up: get your three estimates from contractors who are NOT going to do the actual repair if you can. Some judges and bond examiners give more weight to a neutral estimate than one from the company that stands to be hired. At minimum make sure each estimate itemizes the original defective work separately from the new interior damage, so the causation story is clear on paper.

Also photograph the tarp and the pulled shingles before anyone touches them. Once the new roofer fixes it, that evidence is gone.

Final update for now. Bond company acknowledged my claim and is investigating. Insurance is handling the interior and going after him on subrogation. The CSLB complaint is logged. Once he saw all three moving at once, his partner came back and offered $4,500. I am weighing it against finishing the bond claim and small claims for the full amount.

Huge thanks to this thread. Six weeks ago I was panicking and ready to just pay out of pocket. Lessons for anyone reading: get it in writing, verify the license first, mitigate the water immediately, document obsessively, and run every recovery path in parallel instead of one at a time.

Will post the final number when it lands.