Homeowner scammed out of £11k after two rogue traders left him with a leaking roof and damaged ceilings

A homeowner was left “devastated” after spending £11,000 on two rogue roofers who “took his money and vanished”, leaving him with a leaking roof, damaged ceilings, and a £16,000 repair bill.

Kevin Adshead, 58, a field service engineer, and his partner Louise, 58, a sales assistant, live in a two-bedroom semi-detached dormer bungalow in Greater Manchester. Kevin bought the property in November 2022 with plans to renovate it.

After spending £20,000 on renovations, Kevin said he hired a roofer, whom he would not like to name, in March 2024 to replace his roof, paying £6,500, only to later discover the roofer had not ordered the materials or paid the scaffolder.

When Kevin refused the roofer’s demand for more money, he said the worker abandoned the job, leaving the roof stripped and unfinished.

That winter, the couple “did not have a Christmas” and were forced to live in coats and blankets as heat escaped through holes in the ceiling.

In summer 2025, Kevin said a second roofer, whom again he would not like to name, abandoned the job after he paid them £4,500, leaving him with another leaking roof, damaged ceilings, and a £16,000 repair bill, halting all further work on his bungalow.

Kevin told PA Real Life: “It’s just constant stress, I can’t do any more renovations on the house because of this – it’ll all get ruined because of the leaks.

“I haven’t got a room in the house that’s completely finished.

“You feel like you’re going to just break down in tears, you don’t know who to trust.

“I’m devastated, they both took my money and vanished basically.”

Kevin bought his bungalow in November 2022, knowing it would need some renovation work.

Over time, he completed several projects, including moving stud walls and doorways, cladding the front of the house, installing new windows and carrying out a partial rewire – spending around £20,000 in total.

In March 2024, Kevin began searching for a roofer to replace his entire roof, as it started to leak.

That same month, he sold an item on Facebook Marketplace and got chatting to the buyer, who recommended a roofer currently working on her property.

Kevin said he contacted the roofer, who arrived promptly to inspect the roof and quoted £9,000 for the work.

“He seemed to know what he was doing – he had a clear plan and appeared to have scaffolding almost ready to go,” Kevin explained.

But, Kevin said after he confirmed he wanted to proceed, the roofer took several weeks to start.

When the roofer eventually arrived later that March, Kevin said he asked for around £3,000 upfront to cover scaffolding costs, which he paid.

In May 2024, Kevin said the scaffolder contacted him to say they had not received payment – and that is when “alarm bells started to ring”.

“I paid the roofer the money to give to the scaffolder, but the roofer obviously did not give it to him,” he added.

Kevin said he had also paid £3,500 for materials and a skip that never arrived.

When he called the building supplies company, he said they told him the order had not been placed and that the roofer still owed them money.

By that point, Kevin said he had paid the roofer £6,500, and in July 2024, the roofer demanded more money, claiming the job had “taken longer than expected”.

“I told him it took longer because he stopped turning up regularly and I wasn’t going to give him any more money because of what I’d heard,” Kevin added.

“He stopped turning up completely after that.

“I kept ringing him up asking when he was going to get it finished – he’d stripped the roof off and just left it.

“The tiles he had taken off were just left on my drive and the skip never turned up – I had to pay for another one myself and do it myself.”

Around the same time, the person who had originally recommended the roofer phoned Kevin to warn him that she too had been scammed – the roofer had stopped turning up at her property as well.

That winter, Kevin was “forced” to wear his coat indoors at all times, covering himself and his partner in blankets, and they “did not have a Christmas”.

He said: “Even with the heaters on, the heat just disappeared up through the holes in the ceiling.

“We didn’t put a Christmas tree up because of everything.”

The person who had first recommended the roofer later found another roofer who did a “good job” on her roof.

So Kevin contacted him and felt reassured, and the new roofer started work in July 2025, with a fee of £4,500.

“He cracked on with a team of lads, no messing, the job was getting done and I thought it was a good roof at the time,” he said.

“But there started to be a few leaks.”

When he tried to get back in touch, he said the roofer told him he was in hospital and would not be recovered until December.

He added: “I spoke to one of his sons and I said ‘What’s the contingency?’

“He said ‘None of the other lads drive, so none of us are working’.

“So now he’s not answering phone calls, he’s not answering messages, I can’t get hold of him.

“The fact is, he’s left me with a roof that’s leaking – the leaking is bad, if not worse than before I had the roof originally stripped off.”

Now the roof needs replacing again, and all the ceilings in Kevin’s house need reboarding and reskimming.

Kevin said a roof assessor inspected the property and found that some of the tiles were not attached properly, meaning rainwater now runs into the inside of the roof.

In some places, daylight is visible through gaps where tiles have not been secured properly.

“The assessor told me that roofers should be members of the National Federation of Roofing Contractors and you can ask to see their documents – so I’ll be doing that in the future,” Kevin explained.

The ceiling in his bathroom is leaking, and there are stains on the living room ceiling as a result.

Kevin said the assessor estimated that repairs will cost him around £16,000, and he has since set up a GoFundMe page to help reach that target.

“It would mean the world if we got some more donations, we just feel like we’re stuck at the moment,” he added.

To donate, visit: www.gofundme.com/f/thanks-to-cowboy-roofers.