Advice Needed on Roofing Contract
BOISE/ID Need contractor advice. We signed roof contract, now realizing pricing may be extremely high.
Looking for honest roofer perspectives on what would be considered fair/reasonable in this situation.
We recently signed a contract with a large sales company for replacement of approximately 305 sq ft of flat roof using a GAF Liberty SBS system. The project also includes temporary removal/reinstallation of 10 existing solar panels (no new solar equipment).
Additional Details:
- Contract total is $11,500.
- We are outside the penalty free rescission/cancellation period in the contract
- Materials have already been delivered
- No roofing work has actually been completed
- The first scheduled install was delayed because the solar panels had not been coordinated for removal yet
The contract includes a late cancellation clause stating we may owe 50% of the contract value if we cancel after the cancellation period.
Here is the thing that really shook our confidence: the subcontractor who showed up for the install (before realizing the solar panels had not been removed yet) saw the contract amount and told us it was the worst pricing he had ever seen from this company. He said he had seen high markups before, but ours was the worst he’d personally seen, and he independently estimated the job should probably be closer to \~$3,750. I could tell he felt awful telling us this, he said it’s something he’s never done but he felt awful about how much we were being charged.
We are NOT planning to identify him or involve him further because we do not want to jeopardize his relationship with the company or create problems for him professionally. At the same time, we also do not want to get completely screwed financially if the pricing truly is this far outside normal market range.
We have since done additional market research and from what we’re seeing, comparable pricing seems more in line with what the subcontractor shared, the project should cost more in the ~$3.5k–6k range.
We are NOT trying to avoid paying legitimate costs incurred. We fully understand there are real expenses involved with materials, scheduling, labor, permits, delivery, etc.
We’re trying to figure out what would actually be considered fair here from a contractor/roofer perspective:
- How out of line is our contract price of $11,500 for this job?
- Is a 50% cancellation demand reasonable when essentially no work has been completed?
- It there any way to negotiate the cancellation fee?
- What would you consider fair actual damages in this scenario?
Trying to approach this reasonably and in good faith, but also trying not to make a terrible financial decision.