Roofing Contractor Software in New York

New York has no state license for roofers, and it has the strictest roofing contract law in the country. The license comes from wherever the house is. New York City licenses home improvement contractors through the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection for any job over $200. The license takes an exam, fingerprinting, and a $20,000 bond or a payment into the city's trust fund. Nassau and Suffolk license with exams of their own. Westchester, Rockland, and Putnam license, and Putnam wants a $25,000 bond. Buffalo licenses contractors under its own ordinance, and Rochester registers some trades. In the rural counties upstate a roofer works without any license at all.

The contract law is statewide, and roofing has its own section. Any home improvement contract over $500 has to be in writing with the required terms. Every payment received before the job is done has to go into an escrow account or be covered by a bond or a letter of credit. The roofing section goes further. A roofer may not require a deposit for work or materials at all, and may invoice materials only on delivery, with the cost disclosed in advance. When the roof is on an insurance claim, the contract has to name the insurer, the coverage, and the policy limits. The roofer may not advertise or promise to pay or rebate any part of the deductible. The homeowner can cancel within three business days after the insurer says in writing that all or part of the claim is not covered. Every sale made in the home carries three business days to cancel on top of that.

The storms are the business, and they come in every form. Sandy came through on October 29, 2012 and severely damaged or destroyed about 100,000 homes on Long Island, with 21 dead on Staten Island. The remnants of Ida on September 1, 2021 broke the city's record for rain in a single hour and killed 13 people in New York City, 11 of them in basement apartments. The blizzard of December 2022 shut Buffalo down for six days and killed 47 people in Erie and Niagara counties. The lake-effect snow loads a roof in Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse every winter.

The Uniform Code applies to every municipality except New York City, which has its own, and the local building department enforces it. The growth is in Saratoga County outside Albany, in Onondaga County ahead of the Micron plant, and in the Hudson Valley. Long Island's 1950s Capes and the 1990s subdivisions upstate are aging out at the same time.