Joe Lee and Sons Roofing Limited

And why I don't think you should use them

For anything

Ever.

This is a rundown of the past ~6 months of dealing with J Lee & Sons Roofing Limited. I would strongly recommend nobody uses them, but please make your own decisions.

I had part of my dry verge that had fallen off the roof, so I needed this fixed. I contacted some local roofing companies that I found from flyers that come through the door, Google searches, and Rated People.

Before

Here you can see that the top part of the dry verge is missing, and the dry verge is brown in colour.

After

Here you can see the quality of the work completed by J Lee & Sons Roofing Limited after several attempts to replace the dry verge.

Should you need any more convincing on the quality of work completed by J Lee & Sons Roofing Limited, feel free to read on.

And the saga beings

• 2024-08-21 - Wednesday
This is my first interaction with J Lee & Sons Roofing Limited.
I get a phone call from Joe, weirdly, telling me that he's been trying to get hold of me for a while. I confirm the work that needs doing and he suggests he'll be round later in the week to quote.
• 2024-08-23 - Friday
Joe arrives at mine at around 10:15. He's a well-built man who appears to stand slightly closer to you than you might be comfortable with. He looks at the roofline, wonders aloud if he'll get a cherry picker for 'the lads' to work from. He states that he has about 40 people working for his company and this job will be no problem. I've had difficulty getting hold of anyone to come round and do this work, so I agree to him doing the job.
• 2024-08-30 - Friday
One short week later (apparently the job could have been done sooner, but I preferred to be around in case they have any questions and to simply offer them a drink while they work). 2 guys arrive at about 13:25, they have a drink, and at about 13:50 tell me they need to leave to "get the right screws". They return at around 14:55, presumably with the right screws, and work until around 16:20 when they tell me they've done a fantastic job, they "won't need to come back to this one" (which felt like an odd thing to say), and they assume I'm happy with the quality of work. Work I can't really see. I agree that, yes, I do appear to have a dry verge on the house again. It didn't look as straight as the one they'd taken off, but it is what it is. They leave.
• 2024-08-31 - Saturday
This is a Saturday. At 19:03 I receive quite an aggressive phone call from Joe stating that he's "been looking through the accounts and noticed that you'd not paid". Now, working hours wise this is only a couple of hours after the job has been completed so I'm a little surprised to be chasing for payment. I inform Joe that the payment would be sent on Monday and confirm the bank details with him. The lads who gave me the bank details gave me the wrong information. So if Joe hadn't aggressively called me, I'd have had to contact him on the Monday to confirm payment details anyway.
• 2024-09-02 - Monday
Payment for the work is made.
• 2024-10-14 - Monday
I phone Joe at around 09:05 to inform him that some of the dry verge has come off and I'd like it fixed. It came off over the weekend, but even though Joe thought it appropriate to hassle me on a weekend I didn't feel the same.

At around 12:10, one of the original 2 arrived and fixed the cap which had come off. He tells me that it was due to the other guy only using 1 screw to hold the caps in place, and there should have been two. I ask that he confirmed all caps had been checked for now having 2 screws. He confirmed they had all been checked and all had 2 screws at least.
• 2024-12-09 - Monday
Again, there were caps which had come off at the weekend. Again, I afforded Joe the courtesy of not hassling him over the weekend. I called several times from 09:05 until 11:06 when Joe finally answered. He said he'd try to fit me in and get it fixed, but they "were very busy due to the storms at the weekend". Well, yes. And the work I've paid you to do has failed during that storm. I was asked to confirm my address via text message. As this is the second time the caps have fallen off, I took pictures.
This is after the dry verge has been replaced (you can see it's now black and it was brown before).

A closer view of the alleged repair.

This is a cap which was absolutely fixed on with more than 1 screw and "wasn't going anywhere".

• 2024-12-19 - Thursday
I text Joe to make sure that someone would actually be coming round to fix the dry verge.
• 2024-12-20 - Friday
After almost 2 weeks of absolutely nothing from Joe, I ring again. A bit of an intake of breath, it'll be tricky to fit me in because it's coming up to Christmas.
• 2024-12-30 - Monday
I call Joe again between 09:57 and 10:24 asking for an update.
• 2025-01-02 - Thursday
I get a couple of missed calls from Cam on Joe's phone. Apparently, Joe is on holiday and they've had a problem with the charger for Joe's phone - Sure, that's a thing in 2025. Every phone has a different charger these days doesn't it? Cam tells me he will be round tomorrow (Friday) afternoon, if not then he'll definitely be round on the Saturday (3rd and 4th January).
• 2025-01-09 - Thursday
Obviously nobody had been round. I called asking for an update.
• 2025-01-13 - Monday
Still nobody round. I ring again, I think I spoke to Cam.
• 2025-01-14 - Tuesday
Phone call from Joe's number. I don't remember who called or what was promised.
• 2025-01-15 - Wednesday
More calls both ways.
• 2025-01-16 - Thursday
I receive a call, possibly from Joe. If this was where he did ring me, he was annoyed that Cam hadn't been round yet (not as annoyed as me, Joe) and would send him round.
• 2025-01-17 - Friday
I make more calls.
• 2025-01-20 - Monday
I receive a call asking I confirm my address. I text them again with my address. On this visit, Cam tells me that he can't really understand what's happening. All the screws are making good contact with the battens (and he showed me how a screw worked....) he also said that the battens weren't rotten. Before leaving, he pulled very hard on the area where he'd fixed the cap to prove it wasn't moving (it didn't appear to move at all) and said something along the lines of he'd bet a million pounds it's not going anywhere, and if it does he wants a camera monitoring it.
• 2025-01-24 - Friday
I notice that once again the dry verge is coming away. I text a picture to Joe.
This is the quality of the work which "isn't going anywhere."

This is the quality of the work which "isn't going anywhere."

• 2025-01-25 - Saturday
I notice that more of the dry verge has come off. I ring Joe, apologising for disturbing him on a Saturday but explain I'm furious that the dry verge is coming off again. I follow up by texting a picture of the dry verge to Joe.
This is the quality of the work which "isn't going anywhere".

• 2025-01-26 - Sunday
Joe texts me saying that the weather is looking too bad for coming round on the Monday and they will be round on the Tuesday instead. This is fair.
• 2025-01-28 - Tuesday
It appears someone had been round. I text Joe to say thank you.
• 2025-02-11 - Tuesday
Again, the dry verge is coming away from the house. I ring Joe and leave a message. He rings me back but I missed it. I return the call but he doesn't seem to know why I'm ringing. Then Joe 'remembers' that my battens are rotten and that's why the caps are falling off. At no point has anyone indicated any problem with the battens. Cam has blamed his mate on not using enough screws, blamed damaged caps, and been confused with why they keep falling off. On Cam's last visit that I was in for, he demonstrated how a screw works (thanks, I guess?), said he couldn't understand why they kept falling off, he confirmed that the screws were going in to the battens and the battens weren't rotten. Joe tells me that he will be round himself to "get up there myself and see what's going on".
As of 2025-02-16 this is my final interaction with J Lee & Sons Roofing Limited.
Apparently this is what a good job looks like, according to J Lee & Sons Roofing Limited.

This has taken 4 attempts to get to this standard. I wouldn't be happy with this if I was Joe, Cam, or anyone at J Lee & Sons Roofing Limited.

• 2025-02-16 - Sunday
Joe, of course, has not been round nor made any contact.
• 2025-02-18
Joe was round today while I was out. He rang me to confirm he'd been round, and my battens are indeed rotten. All of them, apparently. When I queried how Cam was able to demonstrate that the caps were on solidly on a previous visit, it turned out that 'most' of the battens were rotten, and the screw in to the concrete is what wouls have meant that the cap was secure. It's interesting how the story changes when there's a little bit of a question.
Joe didn't attempt to offer on quoting for the work he's identified as required, which makes you think. I didn't bother to ask why on the last repair, when they had apparently identified that my battens were rotten, they didn't think to let me know I had a problem with my roof.
It seems to me that J Lee & Sons Roofing Limited aren't interested in doing a good job, in my opinion they just want a quick job and to take your money.

If for any reason anyone should require proof that the above is what happened, here are the phone logs and text messages to go with it:

So, that's how things ended with J Lee & Sons Roofing Limited. Many, many broken promises from Joe and Cam. Clearly shoddy work having been completed - Cam blamed the first failure on not enough screws being used, and confirmed that had been resolved. When it failed again (and it was clear there wa a single screw in the cap) he blamed it on a damaged cap which meant they weren't clipping together correctly, but confirmed the battens were OK. Aggressive tone from Joe hours after the job was apparently first completed, and happily blamed rotten battens which the person doing the work had confirmed weren't rotten. It's obviously your decision if you decide to use J Lee & Sons Roofing Limited, but I can't suggest that anyone does. For anything. Ever