What to check before a roofer starts on a Montclair-area house

New Jersey's word for a roofer's status is registration. Per the state's Division of Consumer Affairs, any outfit making or selling home improvements registers with the Division every year unless an exemption applies. Advertising as a contractor without a registration is off limits. The number goes on business documents, business cards, commercial vehicles, ads and the place of business.

To check a name, open the Division's online License Verification System and look under Business Search for home improvement contractors. After the 2012 storms it also gave a phone line, 800-242-5846, for confirming registration and asking about complaints. The Division's application line is 1-888-656-6225; the registration fee is $110, and renewals come due before March 31.

A registered contractor has to show a commercial general liability policy of at least $500,000 per occurrence, in its own name, when it applies and when it renews. The 2012 consumer advice goes a step further: ask for a copy of the policy and call the insurer to confirm it is valid.

A separate state rule, N.J.A.C. 13:45A-17.5A, describes an identification badge for people who sell home improvements. It would show a name, photo and signature, the business name and its registration number, and run for two years. The rule ties its start to a badge program date, so ask the Division whether it is in force yet.

State rules call for a written, signed contract on home improvement work priced above $500. It carries the seller's legal name and business address, plus the work described along with its principal materials, naming make and model where they apply. It carries the total price with any finance charges folded in, or an hourly labor rate on time-and-materials work. It carries start and finish dates. If the financing puts a mortgage or other security interest in play, the contract describes it. And it states whatever promise the seller makes about the work.

Changes to the dates have to be agreed in writing. The rule also bars asking for final payment before the work is done and bars passing a down payment off as the full amount owed.

The asphalt roofing trade group's list, written after Sandy, makes a handy script. Ask whether the business has a permanent location, what roofing systems it has worked with, whether it can give recent client references, and whether it carries general liability insurance. Ask for a written proposal. Look the business up with the Better Business Bureau.

Add two of your own. Ask who the crew leader will be on site. And ask what happens to rotted boards if the crew finds more than the proposal assumed.

After the 2012 storms, the Division of Consumer Affairs advised against paying the full amount up front. Its suggestion was no more than a third beforehand, a third midway and the last third at completion. The trade group says to be wary of anyone who asks for payment in advance. The state's contract rule separately bars requests for final payment before the work is done.

Whatever the schedule, put it in the contract with the dates it ties to.

A buyer has until midnight of the third business day to back out of certain sales made at home, under the FTC's Cooling-Off Rule. Saturdays count as business days. Sundays and federal holidays are left out. At the time of sale, the seller has to explain the right and hand over two cancellation forms plus a dated copy of the contract.

Two kinds of sale fall outside the rule: those made to meet an emergency, and those made after the buyer asked the seller to come for repairs or maintenance. Purchases that go beyond the original request are covered. For a leaking roof, ask the roofer in advance how the cancellation terms apply.

The Division's advice after the 2012 storms warns about out-of-state fly-by-night operators and says to get multiple quotes before signing. The roofing trade group notes that an influx of contractors from outside the area after a major storm can attract disreputable operators.

On the insurance side, New Jersey's Department of Banking and Insurance says the contractor does not have to be the insurer's recommendation. Its consumer line, 1-800-446-7467, takes complaints when a dispute with the insurer cannot be settled.

When a house is a one- or two-family building with no shared walls, the state building code puts repair or replacement of existing roof covering, total replacement included, on its ordinary-maintenance list. The Uniform Construction Code's section 5:23-2.7 exempts ordinary maintenance from permits, inspections and notice to the enforcing agency. The state's March 2018 alert adds a caution: calling a job ordinary maintenance waives nothing about code compliance, and the finished work still has to meet the code. A 2025 newsletter makes the same point about reroofing.

The alert does not say whether attached houses, townhouses or condominiums qualify, and it says nothing about roof structure or decking. Those questions go to the town's building office, listed below.

Glen Ridge's Historic Preservation Commission reviews exterior changes visible from a street, and its page says the historic district covers over 80 percent of the borough. New roofing in a material other than the one now on the house is reviewable; matching material and color are not. The 2021 guidelines call for like-for-like on slate and wood and accept asphalt shingles to replace non-historic roofing.

Montclair's Historic Preservation Commission issues Certificates of Appropriateness for exterior changes to landmarks and properties in its local districts: Pine Street, Town Center, Upper Montclair Business and Watchung Plaza. Routine repair of existing roofing that does not change its design, scale or look does not need one.