How much deposit should a roofer ask for?

Some roofing materials cannot be bought off the shelf. A batch of handmade clay tiles, natural stone slates in a specific size, a roof window made to order, a bespoke lead detail or an unusual colour of fascia all have to be ordered for your job. If you cancel, the supplier will not take them back, and the roofer is left carrying the cost. A deposit that covers those items is a fair way to share the risk. The sum asked should track the cost of the special order, not the size of the whole job, and it should be written down with the item it covers.

The test is simple. Ask what the deposit pays for. A good answer names the materials and the supplier lead time. A poor answer is that the firm needs it to get going, or that it secures a date. A roofer who cannot say what the money is for is asking you to lend it to them. Suppliers also hold some materials for only a short time, so a booking that sits in a diary for months is a reason to ask when the order will actually be placed.

Many jobs work better with no deposit at all, or with a small one and the balance on completion. Where a job runs over several days, or involves a phased strip and re-lay, payment can be split into stages tied to visible progress, for example once the old covering is off and battens are fixed, and then once the roof is finished and the site clear.

The aim is to keep what you have paid close to what has been done. If a stage is paid ahead of the work, you carry the risk. Make sure each stage is written into the quote with a clear trigger, not left to a conversation on the doorstep. Keep every payment traceable: pay by bank transfer or another method that leaves a record, and ask for a receipt that names the job and the amount. The quote and its terms are the record, and our guide to what a roofing quote should include shows what to look for.

A firm that has just knocked on your door and asks for money up front deserves caution. Read doorstep roofers: how to spot a cold-call scam before you say yes to anything. The same goes for these signals.

• A demand for most of the price, or all of it, before work begins.
• Cash only, with no receipt and no invoice.
• Pressure to decide today, or a discount that vanishes if you wait.
• No written quote, or a quote with no business address.
• Materials said to be left over from another job.
• A deposit asked for before you have seen photographs of the problem.

Any one of these is a reason to pause. Several together are a reason to walk away. A reputable firm will not mind you taking a day to think, comparing a second quote or asking a relative to read the paperwork. Pressure to skip those steps tells you something about the firm. Our guide to checking a roofer is genuine gives you a way to verify a firm before money moves.

A contract agreed in your own home, or anywhere else that is not the trader's premises, can be cancelled under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 within 14 days, with no reason needed. Work should not begin inside that window unless you have made a request for it on paper or by email. If you cancel once work is under way at your request, what you owe is proportionate to the work already supplied.

Separately, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 requires a service to be carried out with reasonable care and skill, and if it is not, you may ask for the work to be done again, or for a price reduction if that fails. Our page on the 14-day cooling-off rule goes through this in more detail.

None of this replaces advice for your own case, so contact Citizens Advice or a solicitor if a dispute is serious.

If a job needs planning permission or listed building consent, wait for it before you pay for anything that cannot be reused. A deposit paid for a dormer that is then refused is a deposit that may be hard to recover. Read planning permission for roof work and ask your roofer to say in the quote whether consent is needed. Where work is notifiable under Building Regulations, the notification should be made before work begins.

A workmanship guarantee covers the quality of the work after it is done. It does not protect money you have paid before the work starts, and it does not work as an insurance policy. The difference is explained on insurance-backed or workmanship guarantee.

Skyline Swindon Roofing gives a workmanship guarantee of 10 years in writing, and the written quote comes after a survey, with photographs of the roof attached. Whatever payment terms apply to a job are in that quote, so you can read them at home before you agree to anything. If you need to spread a large cost rather than pay a deposit from savings, do roofing companies offer finance? covers the options and the questions to ask.