collections nightmare: homeowner ghosted after we tore off the old asphalt shingles

had this job last week where we stripped the entire roof down to the deck, installed new underlayment and synthetic felt, and got the trusses all squared up before the weather turned. homeowner decides he's rethinking the GAF Timberline quote and stops answering calls, leaving our crew with tarps flapping in the wind. been chasing him for days now, even sent a demand letter, but nothing. saw a similar rant in the Roofing Contractors Facebook group, guy there said it took small claims to get paid. anyone got a good collections software that tracks roofing jobs specifically? trying to avoid eating this one.

man, that sucks. had a similar ghosting after demo on a shingle job last year, felt like kicking the door down.

don't let it sit too long, file a mechanics lien within 30 days or whatever your state cutoff is, or you'll lose your leverage on that property.

homeowners like that are the worst, pulling this crap on roofing crews who already invested sweat and materials. insurance companies do the same with claims.

nah, just walk away and don't chase, better to cut losses than waste time on deadbeats who'll never pay anyway.

pisses me off every time, spent a whole day ripping off old cedar shakes and the guy bails, left us high and dry with no recourse.

how'd you quote it, flat rate or t&m? ever had to deal with this on a tear-off like that?

ugh, same boat here after a full re-roof, customer vanished post-demo.

yep, been there with a flat roof job, total headache.

watched a dmitry lipinskiy video on roofinginsights tiktok about collections, he swears by automated reminders before it escalates.

use jobber for invoicing, it flags overdue roofing payments and sends auto texts, saved me a ton of chasing.

quickbooks online integrates with quickbooks time for tracking crew hours on the roof, helps build your case for collections.

customer paid in beer instead of cash, we drank it and called it even lol.

shingling over a partial payment is risky, but i've seen crews do it and regret when the owner flips the house without settling up.

tore off the wrong roof once by accident, thought that was bad til the owner tried to collections us for the mixup. wild.