which markets itself as helping customers find \u201cvetted\u201d and \u201ctrusted\u201d roofers<\/a> \u2013 has apologised.<\/p>\nThe company\u2019s CEO James Logan accepted the work was substandard, said he\u2019s \u201csorry Ms Brown has been through this\u201d and has now agreed to fix the botched job.<\/p>\n
![\"Sunlight]()
Sunlight can be seen shining through a hole in Swinitha Brown’s newly installed roof.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a tremendous amount of empathy for the situation that she\u2019s in,\u201d he told the Herald. <\/p>\n
Brown took the roofer and Roofbuddy to the Disputes Tribunal.<\/p>\n
At the hearing, Roofbuddy agreed to supply new materials and pay for the installation of a new roof.<\/p>\n
While agreeing to remediate the work, Logan said Roofbuddy did not accept liability for the defective job, with a decision on that to be determined by the tribunal at a later date.<\/p>\n
The roofer, who was asked to attend the hearing, didn\u2019t turn up.<\/p>\n
![\"Swinitha]()
Swinitha Brown is using towels and buckets to collect water from leaks in her roof.<\/p>\n
Roofbuddy\u2019s website states that roofers who join its platform need Licensed Building Practitioner (LBP) certification.<\/p>\n
The Herald has confirmed the Napier-based roofer chosen to replace Brown\u2019s roof was not licensed and has since shut down his business.<\/p>\n
Asked whether Roofbuddy\u2019s marketing was misleading, Logan said it wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
However, after the Herald questioned the website description that roofers need to be LBP-certified, Logan changed it to say certification must be held by the business owner or a staff member.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had every page reviewed today against one principle: describe only what we do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Logan said its checks prior to \u201con-boarding\u201d the roofer to its site included relying on a reference from an LBP who\u2019d employed him, confirmation his company was registered, that he had liability insurance and that Roofbuddy had also verified he had completed 22 other jobs without issue.<\/p>\n
Logan said when linking up with Roofbuddy, the roofer also said a member of his team was licensed. <\/p>\n
Roofbuddy has subsequently improved its checks.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur verification at the time relied on the documents supplied … together with that reference. We have since strengthened this: licensing is now checked directly against the [Licensed Building Practitioner] public register,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
![\"An]()
An assessment from roofing firm Edwards and Hardy described the finished job as very poor. Its report noted multiple issues, including rusty chimney flashings that were starting to pull away just six months after installation. Photo \/ Edwards and Hardy assessment report.<\/p>\n
Brown said her experience with the roofer was an \u201cabsolute shambles\u201d with poor communication and shoddy workmanship that was carried out without the use of scaffolding despite the safety equipment being included in the original quote.<\/p>\n
Old roofing iron was left strewn across her backyard despite the quote also including disposal of scrap.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur supposedly new roof is worse off than our old roof was,\u201d she told the Herald.<\/p>\n
![\"Old]()
Old roofing iron was dumped on Swinitha Brown’s front lawn.<\/p>\n
When the new roof leaked during heavy rain, Brown paid for roofing company Edwards and Hardy to inspect the condition of the roof.<\/p>\n
It produced a report that recommended the roof be \u201cfully stripped back and redone by a professional\u201d.<\/p>\n
The report, completed in March this year, found evidence of rusty, damaged flashings that were showing signs of water ingress.<\/p>\n
The use of silicone was \u201cextensive\u201d and translucent roofing panels were \u201ccracked and damaged and some parts are missing\u201d.<\/p>\n
![\"Scratches]()
Scratches were visible on newly installed flashings and silicone was used excessively to patch up holes, according to an independent assessment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe roof condition is poor, considering it was completed no more than six months ago,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n
Emails show Brown raised concerns about the leaking roof with Roofbuddy on January 5 this year and a representative responded and urged her to contact the roofer, as they held the warranty.<\/p>\n
![\"]()
Swinitha Brown’s engaged a roofing company through the platform Roofbuddy and ended up with a defective roof that leaks in heavy rain.<\/p>\n
On January 12, Roofbuddy emailed Brown with information about the Consumer Guarantees Act, recommended the Edwards and Hardy assessment and offered to review its findings.<\/p>\n
Roofbuddy emailed again on January 27, offering to discuss the inspection of the job.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur written offer in January to review her findings and work out how we could help went unanswered; the next document we received was the tribunal\u2019s notice. She has our full support anyway,\u201d Logan said.<\/p>\n
Brown subsequently received a call from the roofer, who she claimed swore at her while saying \u201cthat\u2019s what you get when you go for a quote that\u2019s cheap\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was fuming. I just thought, how can you just fob somebody off and have the audacity to say that to me and have no accountability or responsibility of owning that he has stuffed up our roof?\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Water]()
Water bubbles in the wall in Swinitha Brown’s bathroom because of leaks.<\/p>\n
The Herald contacted the roofer, who said he was a former patched gang member who\u2019d \u201chad a bad run\u201d with his roofing business.<\/p>\n
He claimed the roof could have been damaged by other roofers climbing up on to it and that he was let down by contractors, like scaffolders, who \u201cdidn\u2019t turn up\u201d.<\/p>\n
Brown rejected the roofer\u2019s claims, said there were plenty of alternative scaffolding firms in Gisborne and noted the only other person to climb on to the roof was the expert assessor.<\/p>\n
![\"Roofbuddy]()
Roofbuddy CEO James Logan. Photo \/ Cameron Pitney<\/p>\n
Logan is adamant Roofbuddy didn\u2019t walk away from its responsibilities and said there have been 38 other cases, including Brown\u2019s case, where the company resolved issues for customers who used its platform.<\/p>\n
He sent the Herald a breakdown of instances where he said his company paid to finish jobs or refunded customers when roofers abandoned a job, left it partially completed, or did substandard work.<\/p>\n
He said Roofbuddy incurred costs in every case and had the company not helped those customers, they would have been left out of pocket with \u201cno remedy whatsoever\u201d.<\/p>\n
Roofers on Roofbuddy who failed to meet their obligations were \u201cdeplatformed\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n
![\"Swinitha]()
Swinitha Brown is using towels and buckets to collect water from leaks in her roof.<\/p>\n
Roofbuddy\u2019s website says it offers independent quality assurance checks on completed jobs, but Logan said that in Brown\u2019s case, the roofer told her he would handle all sign-offs and it wasn\u2019t necessary to contact Roofbuddy for an inspection.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat instruction should never have been given or accepted,\u201d Logan said.<\/p>\n
He said while the checks it carried out were \u201cby no means perfect\u201d, he believed the protections his company offered are better than relying on the \u201cunregulated open market\u201d.<\/p>\n
Logan referred the Herald to another customer, David Collinge, who lives in Wellington\u2019s Ngaio and used Roofbuddy to find a roofer to re-roof his home late last year. <\/p>\n
Collinge said after paying a deposit for the job, the owner of the roofing company \u201cghosted\u201d him, \u201ctook my money and then disappeared\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy first response was extreme anger.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, he said when he raised the issue with Roofbuddy, they \u201chad my back\u201d and completed the job.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout Roofbuddy, I would have been in a lot of trouble as I am on a pension.\u201d <\/p>\n
He said Roofbuddy\u2019s issue could be that there were \u201ccowboys\u201d who wanted to use the platform.<\/p>\n
He believed Roofbuddy\u2019s systems to check roofers could be improved.<\/p>\n
\u201cRoofers should have to prove their worth by passing an interview or providing proof of their qualifications. But the main thing is someone tried to rip me off and Roofbuddy put it right,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
While Roofbuddy has a policy of hosting LBP-certified roofers, most re-roofing projects don\u2019t legally require a roofer with such qualifications.<\/p>\n
The Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) told the Herald that constructing a new roof is considered Restricted Building Work (RBW) if resource consent is required.<\/p>\n
In those circumstances, the work must be undertaken or supervised by an LBP.<\/p>\n
However, an LBP is not required when old roofing iron is replaced with comparable materials.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen undertaking any kind of building work, it is always advisable to check whether your tradesperson is appropriately licensed,\u201d an MBIE spokeswoman said.<\/p>\n
Brown said she did ask the roofer for his LBP licence.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe [the roofer] told me that I didn\u2019t need to see it and that it was not my issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michael Morrah<\/a> is a senior investigative reporter\/team leader at the Herald. He won News Journalist of the Year at the 2025 Voyager Media Awards and has twice been named reporter of the year at the NZ Television Awards. He has been a broadcast journalist for 20 years and joined the Herald\u2019s video team in July 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt\u2019s been heartbreaking and stressful. I\u2019m just disappointed.\u201d Leaks from a newly installed roof damaged the shelving in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":594209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[30751,12617,95,111168,74255,142196,1359,2082,12506,6871,27277,1345,6857,33070,111,16652,139,79327,69,2833,2738,20442,66146,292900,6180,213,1361,8475,210,133078,3382,58922,376],"class_list":["post-594208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-30751","tag-absolute","tag-and","tag-buckets","tag-collect","tag-constructed","tag-described","tag-for","tag-gisborne","tag-has","tag-holes","tag-home","tag-leaking","tag-leaks","tag-new-zealand","tag-newly","tag-newzealand","tag-nightmare","tag-nz","tag-ordeal","tag-owner","tag-pays","tag-roof","tag-roofbuddy","tag-shes","tag-sports","tag-that","tag-thats","tag-through","tag-towels","tag-using","tag-via","tag-water"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}