Good news for anyone who has been sitting on savings wondering where the returns are: a roofer has finally cracked it. According to Citizens Advice, one in 10 scams reported to them now involves fraudsters charging for work that is never done, or done badly. Think of it as the most honest sector of the economy, where the money moves first and the roof follows, eventually, if at all.
The model is elegant. You pay upfront for a future asset, the asset is described in glowing terms, and its value is confirmed by a man with a ladder and a clipboard who has stopped answering his phone. Sound familiar? It is the same structure that powers a certain share of the financial world, where the quarterly slides are glossy, everything looks fine from the street, and nobody checks what is under the tiles until the rain comes through the ceiling.
The joke is not really about roofers. It is about how much of modern finance runs on trust in a description rather than inspection of the thing itself. Mis-sold products, fees buried in the small print and schemes sold as the next big thing all depend on the same arrangement: you cannot see the work, so you pay for the promise.
What should you do? Treat any request for full payment before work starts as a warning sign, whether it comes from a builder or a fund manager. Ask for the work to be inspected, check that the firm is registered where it claims to be, and pay in stages tied to completed jobs. Your roof, like your pension, deserves a look before you hand over the money.