After a big storm hits, neighborhoods are often crawling with roofing companies that pop up overnight. Many of these fly-by-night roofing companies are not properly licensed, insured and some can even be made up of outright criminals. These roof scammers will often prey on the elderly or people who don’t have the proper information which can be bad for the whole community.
One Texas State Representative wants Texas to do more to protect the local communities by stepping up regulations for roofing companies. State Representative Kenneth Sheets is tired of local residents being taken for a ride and wants the state of Texas to intervene by requiring roofing companies to carry state-issued occupational licenses, create a voluntary registry, or by other means.
The issue has received both support and opposition from local contracting companies with the North Texas Roofing Contractors Association and the Professional Roofing Standards Council supporting some form of regulation while Texas Independent Roofing Contractor’s Association and US Hispanic Contractors Association are against any further regulation.
Rep. Sheets seems to have his consituents in mind as he pushes for regulations. Sheet’s Chief of Staff Dustin Meador spoke on the issues stating, “This is one of those things he hears about most from people in the district.” Meador knows they face multiple opinions and opposition on the matter stating, “We hear from people who say they’re against the bill because it doesn’t go far enough,” and “There are some who think this is just another form of protectionism for the industry.”
Any regulation is opposed by attorney for the Insititute for Justice, Arif Panju who has gone up against government regulation in the past. He spoke on his opposition to potential regulation, “The roofing industry in Texas is fully capable of regulating itself through voluntary certification or licensing, not unlike that offered by the Roofing Contractor’s Association of Texas,” said Panju. Panju continued, “The courts have made it clear there has to be evidence of a real problem. Mere assertions are insufficient.”
Rep. Sheets has tried and failed on multiple occasions to address the issues he says but despite the opposition, he will continue on with his fight for roofing contractor regulation by introducing another bill at the next congressional session.
Recent Comments