Millen Roofing Company

Review: work performed was outside the terms of the original contract/agreement

failure to honor the original contract/agreement and finish repairs

unauthorized charges to original contract/agreement

unauthorized repairs

inferior repairs

did not provide an estimate for additional repairs - was told about additional repairs only after they were done.

have not provided itemized invoice for additional repairs, as requested

repairs resulted in additional damage

failure to honor original repair estimate/agreement by still not completing all repairs

company has failed to provide itemized bill for anything, as requested

company has not provided any explanation of any charges, in writing, as requested

no warranty or guarantee for labor or materials was ever provided

unauthorized servicesDesired Settlement: #1 finish job that was started according to original contract/agreement.

#2 itemized explanation of ALL charges, materials and labor, from original estimate and the unauthorized charges from unauthorized repairs that were done, that I have requested, on several occasions, be either dropped off or mailed to me.

#3 repairs to areas that were damaged when doing the replacement of roof tiles. including the NEW leak in the utility room and the existing leak from the living room ceiling that should have been taken care of with the replacement of missing, broken and/or cracked tiles on the roof - front of house, facing west, &/ or the installation of new copper flashing at west chimney, either of them or both that was causing the leak to begin with - according to millen

roofing.

#4 billing adjustments

#5 apology for their poor customer service and excuses when problems arose.

they will not get paid the original agreed cost of $8,500. until all work is finished to my satisfaction and according to the original agreement, in addition to fixing the issue of the new leak in utility room and the existing leak in living room. they also need to stick to their first statement/agreement, made several

times, by roger hamm of millen roofing, that I would NOT be charged for the additional tiles that they thought "must" have been broken by the contractor that did repairs on the smaller brick chimney - north side of house, by garage, last fall of 2013. we have pictures that show no additional tiles broken that they speak of, pictures taken about a week before millen started work. not to mention that I was only informed about this and other additional repairs AFTER they were done - no authorization was given to anyone to proceed with anything that was not in the original contract/agreement.

Business

Response:

We received your 5/6/2014 letter on Thursday and on Friday we received your 5/7/2014 letter and package with the complaint documents. We are in the process of responding to the complaints made by the owner Ms [redacted] to Angie’s List and the Wisconsin Bureau of Consumer Protection. In your 5/6/2014 letter you mention that you had previously provided us with the complaint and had not yet received a response and requested written verification within 7 days. Be assured that we value our good reputation and make every attempt to maintain good customer relations. There seems to be some mix-up in the time of the complaint and whether we are dealing with it in a timely manner.

We finished the work on March 31st. We provided the bill to the owner on April 4th. On April 13th the owner’s daughter call that the roof was leaking. On April 15th we inspected the 2 roof leaks and found that they were in areas that were not included in the work. An attempt was made to explain how and why tile roofs leak, the importance of disclosing to us where the roof leaks, and the importance of periodic maintenance. On April 27th the owner told us to not call her but deal with Angie’s List, the Revdex.com and the Wisconsin Bureau of Consumer Protection. Over the last 2 weeks we have responded to Angie’s List and the Bureau of Consumer Protection. We are now finishing up a 20+ page response for the Bureau of Consumer Protection.

Would it be ok for us to send you a copy of our response to the Bureau within the next few days this week? If so, we could then go from there and develop an appropriate response for your file. One of my problems is that the complaints to each of the consumer agencies differ in both the facts given and what is complained about. I am trying to get the situation down to the substantive issues.

Business

Response:

MILLEN ROOFING RESPONSE

Timeline

10-14-13 [redacted] called us because of the building inspector’s

notice to fix broken roof tiles.

10-28-13 Millen Roofing is shown the roof by her daughter [redacted] who shows

us broken tiles and hole in roof at northwest valley and mentions leak

in the attic at the west chimney. We were not allowed in the house

and were told that only the main chimney and garage valley leaked.

Instructions were to provide a proposal for repairing broken tile,

repairing the northwest valley hole, and replacing the main chimney

flashing.

11-4-13 Millen Roofing sends a proposal with specific scope of work covering

the northwest valley, 150 broken tile and west chimney flashing; cost

estimates; and time and material budgets. The total was $8,405.

See proposal (p. 17).

11-12-13 Millen Roofing provides letter for City of Milwaukee Building Code

Violation Officer. See letter (p. 18), attached violation list (p. 19-20).

12-2013 Work delayed because of winter weather, snow on roof.

Roof repair work was done as described. Additional roof deck work

was also done where the roof boards were too deteriorated to nail the

tile to. 213 rather than 150 broken and cracked tile were replaced

because of damage by boiler chimney repair man and more cracked

tile than estimated.

4-4-14 Bill and photos of repair are delivered to [redacted]. The total was

$9,056. She asks that 1 chipped rake tile be replaced and asks us to

provide a cost for repairing the garage cupola. See Invoice (p. 21).

4-7-14 Millen Roofing sent more information on work after requested by

[redacted]. See letter (p. 22).

4-14-14 Ms. [redacted]’s Daughter [redacted] calls complaining about roof leaks in

areas we did not work, except replacing broken tile.

4-15-14 Millen Roofing stops at house to look at leaks. We are shown the

boiler room and living room leaks that appear to be old leaks. We

explain that replacing broken tile will not fix the roof leaks and that we

were not told about the boiler room leak. There was no broken tile at

the living roof leak area. We were not told about the living room leak.

4-16-14 Millen Roofing sends an explanation of the cause of the 4-13-14

leaks and a proposal to repair as requested. See letter (p. 23-24).

4-16-14 Millen Roofing sends invoice for 20 tile broken by mason for $900 to

support owners complaint against mason. See invoice (p. 25).

4-27-14 [redacted] leaves phone message to not talk to her anymore and

that all communication should go through Consumer Complaints and

The Revdex.com, and Angie’s List.

Description of Roof and Work Done

This roof was installed in 1936 and is 78 years old. Tile roofs require

periodic maintenance. These roof systems consist of the tile, a

waterproofing underlayment or roofing felt, metal flashings, gutters and

downspouts. The tile, underlayments and metal flashings are the

components that usually need maintenance and should be kept in good

repair to prevent further deterioration and roof leaks. The typical

2

maintenance cycle is every 5 years. The needed maintenance and

repairs of this roof have not been done for many years.

Our 11-4-13 proposal covered the work discussed with the owner’s

daughter and specifically includes 150 broken and cracked tile, repairing

the leak at the northwest valley including the rotted lumber and new

copper flashing on the west chimney.

This work was covered by cost estimates and the rotted lumber was

specifically covered on a time and materials basis with a stated hourly

rate. Millen Roofing has been repairing slate and tile roofs for 120 years.

Most customers realize that older roofs have hidden conditions and prefer

estimates, budgets and time and material labor rates. Where fixed costs

are required a risk factor is included to cover hidden conditions and poor

weather which are inherent in this type of work. Most estimates and

budgets come within about 10% or less of the final cost.

This work has been documented with 88 photos covering the October

2013 look at, the March 2014 work and the April 2014 response to

complaints about the bill.

The work specifically described in the October 28, 2013 proposal was

completed. While replacing 213 broken tile it became obvious that other

parts of the roof were leaking because we found deteriorated roof boards

and holes where we replaced broken tile. These areas were not disclosed

as leaking in October but we repaired them. Two more areas, that are the

subject of the complaint, were also not mentioned as leaking in October.

These two areas appear to be old leaks. We did not work near the living

room leak. We repaired tile broken by the mason near the boiler room

leak but did not see any indication of leaking. The old leak may have

been at the chimney masonry.

Here is the roof plan and A.) the location of the original or proposed work,

B.) the location of the new leaks, C.) the location of the extra work, and

photos.

Consumer

Response: