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Asphalt shingle warranty

David8043

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Does anyone have firsthand experience with getting a roof redone under the warranty? I have 25 year BP asphalt shingles that were installed 10 years ago, on a rental home, by a large, reputable Edmonton roofing company. The roof is leaking in at least 3 places. The water is dripping through the roof itself, and not at a flashing or plumbing stack or other penetration. I have all the paperwork. According to the warranty, at their choice, BP will either pay 15/25 of the cost of redoing the roof - materials and labour, or they will pay me 15/25 of the cost of the original roof job. (15/25 because that is how much of the shingle warranty is left). Has anyone been in the same position and gone through the process? How did it go?
 

Thomas Beyer

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Call the firm. Send them the paperwork. If they don’t act take them to small claims court.


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Cory Sperle

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Like an insurance claim, expect this to take some time and try to be patient. If you have all the paperwork and are well organized it should go fairly smoothly. I would approach a second or third roofing company for an estimate of repair, so you know the true value to fix vs. what the roofing company is prepared to pay for you. Court is an absolutely last resort and in a case like this it's hardly worth it.
 

Thomas Beyer

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Like an insurance claim, expect this to take some time and try to be patient. If you have all the paperwork and are well organized it should go fairly smoothly. I would approach a second or third roofing company for an estimate of repair, so you know the true value to fix vs. what the roofing company is prepared to pay for you. Court is an absolutely last resort and in a case like this it's hardly worth it.

Phone them, send letters, phone again, be firm but very persistent and polite, send final warning from a law firm. Then get an estimate of repair cost if you do not hear from the “reputable” firm a few weeks after you contacted them.

Small claims court is fairly efficient, unlike the Court of Queens bench which is just a way to lavishly employ lawyers and judges. Justice, speedy dispute resolution or fair value is certainly not possible in the court system. Another government run bloated inefficient bureaucracy designed to benefit primarily lawyers and civil servants.
 
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David8043

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Thank you for your replies. So far, I spoke to the roofing company. They said that the warranty is from the shingle manufacturer and not from them. (Technically correct) They gave me the specific phone number to call at BP. At this time I am waiting to get a call back from BP. As far as "take time and be patient" - that does not work in Edmonton at this time of year. There is a season for shingling, and three months from now will not work. I'll continue to update as there is specific info.
 

Thomas Beyer

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Thank you for your replies. So far, I spoke to the roofing company. They said that the warranty is from the shingle manufacturer and not from them. (Technically correct) They gave me the specific phone number to call at BP. At this time I am waiting to get a call back from BP. As far as "take time and be patient" - that does not work in Edmonton at this time of year. There is a season for shingling, and three months from now will not work. I'll continue to update as there is specific info.

Give them a short deadline, say a week, then consider taking legal action. Without it you’ll get delay after delay and excuses. Maybe they send you a pack of new shingles worth $800. Would you be happy with that? Getting new shingles doesn’t cut it. They have to be installed obviously.

Familiarize yourself with the small claims court process.

Get a quote from another roofing company to fix it. That should be your claim amount, plus hassles for you, say 20% on top.
 

David8043

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This issue has now taken a major turn. I googled BP to confirm that their address was still the same, so that I can file a written warranty claim. The google search showed that there was a class action lawsuit resolved in 2012 regarding premature failure of many BP shingles - (my specific shingles are on the list). Now I seem to have a choice - I can file a warranty claim through BP, which should be worth about $5000 if the claim is successful. Successful means they honor their warranty fully and with no excuses. The total cost of reroofing will be about $9000, the prorated warranty should cover over $5000. Alternately, I need a roofing contractor to provide a statement confirming the shingles are leaking, then send that to the class action law firm, and then receive compensation of $75 per 100 square feet of roof (the settlement amount) This should be guaranteed to be successful, but only about $2000. There are 2 HUGE and unfair points that are part of the class action settlement - and #2 seems VERY unfair: #1) Once a homeowner makes a claim with one option, you are not eligible to do the other - your claim is dealt with by one process or the other, and not both. #2) No homeowner may sue BP in court or small claims court because the issue of premature shingle failure has already been resolved in court. If anyone does file a court claim it will be promptly dismissed. If I choose the warranty route, and BP simply says "Sorry, they weren't installed 100% correct" (or any other excuse they can dig up) then I will be left with nothing and apparently no recourse to sue or go to the settlement as a backup. Thanks for the general advice - but I REALLY want to hear from someone who has firsthand experience with this. Or, maybe I am the first REIN member to deal with this. BP is a common brand of shingle. If I am the first to go through this, I certainly will not be the only one.
 
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David8043

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Thank you sharon9. Everyone contemplating a reshingling should visit that site. There are 137 reviews of BP and 105 people are angry (25 and 30 year shingles last 10 years or so, and the warranty is worthless) The positive reviews are all written by roofers. They typically say "I'm a roofer and BP is a good company". No positive reviews are from customers. I worked most of today on preparing a warranty claim. Now I'm guessing not to bother. In many, many reviews from customers, BP's strategy appears to be run around and more run around for months or years and never resolve anything, and eventually the customer gives up. I notice that BP and IKO have both been the subject of class action lawsuits regarding horrible shingles, and no other manufacturer has. That should speak volumes about BP and IKO and should also say something favorable about other brands. The specific shingles that I have are BP Rampart 25 year shingles. After 10 years they look like shingles that have been in use for 25+ years - curled, blistered, bald areas from missing granules, etc. In my previous post, I mentioned a cash settlement option through the law firm. I misinterpreted what I had read. The cash settlement option is also through the BP warranty. According to the review website, it also is subject to long time periods of run-around, excuses, ridiculously low offers, and commonly, outright denial.
 

David8043

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Update: 2 days ago, I submitted a warranty claim. When there is news one way or the other, I'll post another update.
 

David8043

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BIG update: 2 business days after receiving my warranty claim, BP accepted it with no excuses etc, and offered to reimburse me $5600.00 off the price of reroofing! Thanks to everyone who replied. My own first hand experience is that BP made a real lousy line of shingles - or batch of shingles - but they did stand behind their product and honor their warranty.
 

Tina Myrvang

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Thank you for sharing, this is great information for any future problems that member might have with BP.
 

vbansal

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BIG update: 2 business days after receiving my warranty claim, BP accepted it with no excuses etc, and offered to reimburse me $5600.00 off the price of reroofing! Thanks to everyone who replied. My own first hand experience is that BP made a real lousy line of shingles - or batch of shingles - but they did stand behind their product and honor their warranty.
Hi David,
I'm getting close to submitting a similar claim, but I'm not sure whether I should select the repair or cash option. Which did you go with? The repair option pays more, but requires you to use BP Shingles. My online research makes it seem like BP Shingles are not as good as others (CertainTeed, for example), although I'm not sure what that is based on. I think the issue was only with BP's older "organic" shingles, and would assume they changed their shingles since then.

I have also been told by one roofer that BP's warranties are not as good as others. One website also says that BP Mystique's "actual life" is 25-30 years, while CertainTeed Landmark's is 30-35. Who knows how accurate this is though.

Any advice would be appreciated. I've been communicated with someone at Harrison Pensa (the law firm handling the claims) who has estimated that with the cash option I would receive about $$2,700, but with the repair (BP Shingle) option about $4,000.

Thanks!

V
 

David8043

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Hello: I was away for 10 days, hence the slow reply. According to a knowledgeable roofer at Alf's Roofing in Sherwood Park, the actual life of Certainteed Landmark shingles should be 30+ years. BP Mystique life should be about 25 years. These two are supposed to be the best shingles for low slope roofs. You must have a low slope roof if those are the two you are considering. If your roof is actually leaking, you need to jump on this very quickly. We are running out of shingling season in places like Edmonton. In my warranty claim I mentioned that, and that could be why they made a decision for me as quickly as they did. An important question is how long you plan to keep the building. In my case, I have had this 4 plex for 21 years and I plan to sell it the next time we have a strong market again (The high side of the Don Campbell Real Estate Cycle). I am going with BP Mystique shingles. After the project is done and the warranty claim is paid there should be a net saving to me of about $3000 using BP vs Certainteed. I should be done with this building long before either shingle fails, so in my case BP makes sense. If you are planning a long term buy and hold, then probably Certainteed makes more sense. Pay $1300 more now, and you will get a longer life out of the roof and a longer warranty. You are correct when you say that the warranty coverage is far better with Certainteed. The current warranties are 30 years with Certainteed and 25 years with BP, but, if the slope of the roof is less than 3/12, BP downgrades the warranty to 12.5 years (My slope is 2.75 / 12). I appreciate the comments other REIN members made, but my firsthand experience sure was pleasantly different from what was presented. I am glad to help with any advice I can. David
 
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