Jorve Roofing Jorve Roofing set fire to my house for $7000 Seattle Washington

Initially, my impression of Jorve was good. The estimate was higher than most but everyone was extremely pleasant, from the inspector to the scheduler to their receptionist. We chose them in spite of the price due to their reputation and warranty.

They recommended a torchdown roof on a dormer on the back of our 1924 house as it was relatively flat compared to the rest of the house. We agreed to the $13K estimate as well as their recommendations and paid a 10% downpayment to get work started.

Work started the following week, and all went well until the last day of work. My husband received a call from someone at Jorve telling him our roof was on fire, that they didn't know the extent of the damage or even if the fire was out, but was on his way to our house.

We arrived to find 3 fire trucks, and our street blocked off by policemen. We weren't allowed in for nearly an hour while they cut holes in the roof and sprayed foam on everything to make sure the fire was out. Apparently while finishing the torchdown roof a fire had started inside the attic and as the wood is ~80 years old, the fire spread very quickly.

The end result of all of this? The lathe and plaster walls and ceilings were destroyed, our entire upstairs has been gutted to studs, the roof has to be completely torn off, wiring on the main floor needs to be replaced, we have large holes drilled in the walls on our main floor to prevent mold growth, and some ceilings and walls on the main floor will probably need repairs as well. In total, >$100K damage.

At the scene, Scott Morrison (VP of Jorve) apologized profusely for the damage, and said they would "do right by us".

It's been two months since the fire. We've lost irreplaceable family photos, spent countless hours going through clothing, itemizing lost possessions, estimating the worth of things like tupperware and linens, we don't have all of our clothing, and have had to move into an apartment but have to return to our house to keep up the yard. It is a total headache and will be so for another 4-6 months while our upstairs is rebuilt.

What, you ask, has Jorve done to "do right" by us? They sent us a check for $1000 to pay our insurance deductible (which, I believe, they have to do legally). That's it. From our perspective, we've paid nearly $7K for Jorve to destroy the upper story of our house and our belongings, and to deal with a 6 month headache. We asked for our money back as compensation and were told no as technically we'll have a roof at the end of all of this, not to mention upgrades to get our house up to code. What a bargain!

I am appalled and insulted by this rationale. I would gladly have paid the full $13K to avoid this having to deal with all of this.

My final thought? If everything goes well with your job Jorve will be fine. However, from comments I've read on Angie's List, their customer service skills are sorely lacking and they will NOT take care of you if anything goes wrong. They certainly have not done right by us.

angryhomeowner
Seattle, Washington
U.S.A.