A West Island woman has a warning about a roofing company called Couvreur-Roofer Quality, whose owner has been fined a number of times for operating without a license.

Teena Swiercz says she had found Alain Thibault's number in the Yellow Pages and had him fix her roof.

But she says the roof was still leaking after the work was done.

"The next time it rained, it poured into my bathroom," she told CTV's Tania Krywiak.

Swiercz called Thibault and he came to the house. She says he "fiddled around" and left saying the roof was fixed.

But weeks later, she says the roof leaked again and when she called his number, it was out of service.

Swiercz had no choice but to hire new roofers at a cost of $5,600. They told her the previous workers hadn't even removed the old roof and instead put one roof on top of the other.

She says the second crew found about 300 litres of water in between the two roofs.

 

 

 

Past Complaints

On Your Side looked into Thibault and found out he's not registered with Quebec's construction board.

The board has received eight complaints against him since 2003 -- so far four of the complaints have resulted in convictions for operating without a license.

In 2005 Thibault was found guilty of practicing without a permit and of not respecting the law governing the drafting of contracts.

He was fined just over $7,000 by Quebec's consumer protection office.

Just recently the office received complaints about delays in delivering services.

 

 

 

Tracking Thibault

CTV Montreal tried to locate Thibault but he could not be found at four different addresses.

One address turned out to be a store, another was a post-office box at a pharmacy and the other two were apartment buildings.

He finally answered the phone when CTV called a number listed in an online ad.

Thibault said he had recently gone out of business and that he was leaving the province

He wouldn't answer any questions about complaints against him.

 

 

 

Reaction

Swiercz is still upset about her ordeal.

"I was devastated ... this feeling that someone taken advantage of you," she said.

"It was horrible ... I stopped eating, sleeping."

 

 

 

Advice

As of this past June, all licensed Quebec contractors have license security that provides added protection for consumers.

Clients can receive compensation for shoddy work or failure to carry out the work.

There is a catch -- license security only works if the contractor or company has a permit.

There are also conditions attached -- the defects have to be detected no later than 12 months following completion of the work.

On Wednesday, On Your Side will show clients how to verify if a contractor is licensed.