How to hire a roofer in the Illawarra without getting burnt

Short answer: four checks separate a licensed Illawarra roofer from a storm chaser. NSW contractor licence (required for any roofing over $5,000), separate plumber licence for the roof plumbing, current Certificate of Currency for public liability and workers comp, and a fixed itemised quote with photos of your roof. Anything else is a story.

Why the bar is higher in NSW

NSW has the toughest residential building rules in Australia for a reason. Roofing combines working at heights, structural waterproofing and licensed plumbing into one job, which is why it is one of the most regulated trades in the state. The Home Building Act is the framework, NSW Fair Trading is the regulator, and the public licence register is free to search. The bar is not high to keep good roofers out; it is high because the failure mode of bad roofing is a ceiling collapse during a coastal storm.

You do not need to know the legislation to hire well. You just need to know what a licensed working roofer cannot fake, and ask for it before signing anything.

The four checks, in order

Licence. A residential roofer in NSW needs a contractor licence in the right class (Roof Tiling, Roof Plumbing, or both) for any job over $5,000. The number is a "C number" you can paste into the NSW Fair Trading register. If the work touches gutters, downpipes, box gutters, flashings or storm water (most roof jobs do) the plumber licence is non-optional, separately listed.

Insurance. Two policies matter: public liability (commonly $20m for residential roofing) and workers compensation for any employees on the job. Ask for a current Certificate of Currency, addressed to their company, dated this year. Five minutes of admin. If they cannot send it through, do not hire them.

The quote. A real roofing quote is fixed (not "from"), itemised (square metres, material named exactly, height safety, disposal, scope edges), and built off photos of your actual roof rather than a guess from the ground or the driveway. Three quotes built like that compare like for like. Three "from" prices on different roofs do not.

The warranty. In NSW a roofer owes you statutory warranties under the Home Building Act for six years on major defects and two years on others. Beyond the legal floor, a working roofer writes their own workmanship warranty in plain English (often seven to ten years on installation, separate from the manufacturer's product warranty on the steel or tiles). If the warranty section of the quote says "industry standard", that means nothing has been written.

The three questions that sort the field in one phone call

Before you book an inspection, ask the office:

• What is your NSW contractor licence number, and do you hold roof plumbing as well?
• Can you send a current Certificate of Currency for PL and workers comp before you quote?
• Will the quote be a fixed price with photos of my roof, or a "from" estimate?

A licensed local roofer answers all three in a sentence each. A storm chaser dodges one of the three. That is your filter.

The storm-chaser pattern, named

After every big southerly or hail event in the Illawarra, a flotilla of out-of-area utes arrives, knocks on doors, and offers "free roof inspections" with a "today only" discount. The pattern is not a coincidence. It is a sales method designed to convert a stressed homeowner before they call their insurer or their usual tradie. The three tells: they are not from here (the ute has a Queensland or western Sydney plate), they want a cash deposit on the spot, and the "licence" they wave is either someone else's or a builder licence that does not cover roofing. The fix is boring: take the card, run the checks, call back tomorrow. Real damage waits a day for a real quote. So does insurance.

What we do

Every Ridgeline quote leads with the licence number, sends the COI before the inspection, photographs your roof from on it, and writes a fixed price with the materials named (Colorbond grade, tile profile, membrane brand) and the warranty in plain English. If you compare us against two other roofers built the same way, the numbers might be close. That is the point. Compare quotes that compare.