How to actually vet a roofer before you let them on your roof.

Most people choose a roofer roughly the way they choose a plumber or an electrician: a recommendation from someone they know, a quote that seems reasonable, a gut feel on the phone. For a job that costs as much as a roof and protects everything underneath it, that is a remarkably thin basis for a decision. The encouraging part is that nearly everything you would want to know about a roofer before hiring them is checkable, much of it is free and a lot of it sits in public registers anyone can search. This post is the checklist.

The licence: Licensed Building Practitioner

Roofing is one of the trade licence classes in New Zealand's Licensed Building Practitioner scheme. An LBP has been assessed as competent in their trade and is held to a code of ethics. You can search the public LBP register by name, see which class they hold, confirm the licence is current and check whether they have been disciplined in the last three years. The register is free and public.

Check the register here: lbp.govt.nz.

There is a nuance worth understanding. A straightforward reroof on an existing house is often not classified as restricted building work, which means an LBP is not strictly legally required for every reroof. But new roofing on a consented build and any work that affects your home's structure or weathertightness is restricted building work and must be carried out or supervised by an LBP. Either way, an LBP licence is a meaningful signal of competence and accountability and the register is the first thing to check. Using an unlicensed operator on work that does require an LBP can void insurance and create real problems when you come to sell.

The qualification: Level 4

Beyond the licence, the trade qualification to look for is the New Zealand Certificate in Roofing at Level 4. A roofer who holds both a Level 4 qualification and a current LBP licence has demonstrated both the craft and the formal competence behind it. It is entirely reasonable to ask for both and a good operator will not be the least bit bothered by the question. The ones worth hiring expect it.

The insurances and why two of them matter

Public liability insurance. This covers damage the roofer causes to your property, or to others, while doing the work. Roofing involves working at height, power tools and heavy materials moving over an occupied building, so the exposure is real. Ask for a current certificate. Many councils and commercial clients will not let work start without one.

Contract works insurance. This is the one most people do not know to ask about. It bridges the gap between your own home and contents policy and the roofer's public liability policy, covering the work itself while it is in progress. During a reroof your house is opened up and exposed for a period and contract works cover is what protects that exposure if, for example, weather damages the roof mid-job. On any reroof of scale, it is worth confirming this is in place.

The track record

Reviews and references, not just the star rating. Look at the substance: completed jobs of a similar scale to yours, recent work and how the roofer handled things when something went wrong. A pattern of resolved problems tells you more than a perfect average.

Completed-job count and local presence. A roofer with a long local history and a high completion record is a different risk profile to a brand-new operator based two hours away. Neither is automatically better, but the difference is worth weighing, particularly for how warranty work would be handled later.

The documentation a good roofer provides

• A properly itemised quote, with the scope, inclusions and exclusions spelled out rather than bundled into vague language.
• Manufacturer warranty documentation on the materials and a workmanship warranty from the roofing company, typically 5 to 10 years.
• For restricted building work, a Record of Work and the paperwork your council needs to issue a code compliance certificate.

The questions that surface the rest

Credentials tell you a lot, but a few direct questions fill in the gaps. Ask who is actually doing the work, the person quoting or a subcontractor you have not met. Ask how warranty callbacks are handled if something needs attention in year three. Ask what the most likely variation is on a job like yours, because a roofer who knows their craft will name the realistic candidates and a roofer who says nothing could possibly come up is either very confident or not being straight. The answers tell you as much as any certificate.

Where this gets hard and where Roofbuddy fits

The reason most people do not run this checklist is not that it is difficult. It is that running it across several roofers, on quotes written to different specifications, is genuinely tedious and almost impossible to compare fairly. Every roofer in the Roofbuddy network is vetted on exactly these criteria before they are allowed to quote: LBP status, qualifications, public liability insurance, completed-job data and recent quality assurance outcomes, with the certificates shown on their profile. The comparison is built on the same specification across roofers, so the prices are genuinely comparable. And transactions carry a Customer Warranty of up to 50,000 dollars if a roofer fails to deliver, which has been activated for real customers, not just printed in a brochure.

The checklist in one sentence

You would never hand a stranger a key to your house without knowing who they are and a roof is a far bigger commitment than a key, so check the register, ask for the qualification and the two insurances, look hard at the track record and let a few direct questions tell you the rest.

Check any roofer on the public register at lbp.govt.nz, or get quotes from roofers who are already vetted on every point above at roofbuddy.co.nz or 0800 119 998.