Homeowner Protection
Every major hailstorm brings a wave of out-of-town roofers to Calgary. Here is the paperwork any legitimate contractor should show you, and how to check it before you sign.
After the storm
Calgary sits in the middle of Hailstorm Alley, and serious money falls with the hail. The August 2024 storm alone caused roughly $3.29 billion in insured damage, by industry estimates. Cheques on that scale pull roofing companies here from all over North America.
A storm chaser is an out-of-province outfit that follows hail maps from city to city. The crews arrive within days of a storm, set up a short-term office, knock doors hard for a season, then move on to whichever town gets hit next.
Plenty of them can install a shingle. That is not the problem. The problem shows up in year four, when a valley starts leaking and the company behind your warranty is registered two provinces away with a phone number that no longer rings. A warranty is only worth the company standing behind it.
Not sure the storm even damaged your roof? Start with our hail damage guide before anyone gets you on paper.
Red flags
One of these alone proves nothing. Two or more, and you should keep your name off the paperwork.
“Storm pricing ends Friday.” “We're only in your neighbourhood this week.” Hail damage does not get worse in a week, and no honest discount expires before you can check a reference. The deadline exists to stop you from doing exactly what this page tells you to do.
Your deductible is your share of the claim, set by your policy. A contractor can only “cover” it by billing your insurer for money that was never spent, or by quietly cutting the job to fit. Either way the claim documents misstate the real cost, and that is insurance fraud. In Canada, the exposure lands on the homeowner whose signature is on the claim, not just on the roofer. Treat the offer as your cue to close the door.
A wrapped truck and a cell number are not an address. Ask where the office is, then look it up. If the answer turns out to be a hotel room or a numbered company in another province, picture calling it about a leak in year ten.
Some doorstep contracts include an assignment or direction-to-pay clause that hands the contractor control of your insurance money before an adjuster has seen the roof. No part of a hail claim requires a same-day signature. Sleep on every contract, and read our guide to the claim process so you know what you are signing into.
An established company takes traceable payment and does not need most of the money before materials land in your driveway. A large cash deposit handed to a company with no fixed address is how people end up paying twice for one roof.
Side by side
Both will sound confident at the door. The difference is in what you can verify without taking anyone's word for it.
What you can check · local company vs. storm chaser
| Check | Local company | Storm chaser |
|---|---|---|
| Street address | An office you can drive to, printed on the contract and the licence. | A hotel, a mailbox service, or an address in another province. |
| WCB and licensing | Alberta WCB clearance and a business licence you can verify online in minutes. | Registered elsewhere, if anywhere. Verification dead-ends. |
| Warranty in year 10 | Same company, same phone number, someone who answers and comes back. | The company that printed the warranty may not exist next season. |
| References | Local roofs you can drive past and homeowners you can call. | Jobs in other cities that you have no way to check. |
We put a 15-year written workmanship warranty on our roofs, with plain-language terms published on this site. Paper like that only means something when the company signing it intends to stay put.
The checklist
Fifteen minutes with this list filters out almost every bad actor, local or travelling. Ask for documents, not reassurance.
Now run us through it. Our licensing, certifications and address are on the about page, and all 230 Verified Reviews are public on the reviews page. Any roofer worth hiring will hand you every document on this list. The ones who won't have just answered your real question.
Questions
No. Some travelling companies do competent work. The trouble is that you have no way to confirm it: their references sit in other cities, and their warranty depends on a company that may not exist here next season. The checklist above is fair to everyone. A good roofer passes it no matter where they are from.
For your insurer to pay the full claim while you pay nothing, the paperwork has to misstate what the roof really cost. That is fraud on the claim, and your signature is on the claim. The homeowner carries far more of that exposure than a contractor who leaves the province in October. If you get the offer, decline it, and mention it to your insurer or broker.
Maybe not. Alberta consumer protection law gives cancellation rights on many door-to-door sales contracts, but the window is short, so deal with it the same week. Read what you signed, put your cancellation in writing, and if the contract touches your insurance claim, tell your adjuster what happened.
Free estimate
Book a HAAG-certified hail inspection or tell us what you're seeing. You'll have an answer within one business day.
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