Complaint Review: Commonwealth Corporation

In June of 1998, a large tree fell on the roof of our house on the front side, west end. We contacted our homeowners insurance company which was at the time St Paul, in the process of being purchased by Metropolitan Life. Our insurance company told us if we accepted a contractor that did work for them, the repair work would be guaranteed for as long as we owned the house. We agreed, and a company called Commonwealth Corporation from New Cumberland Pa was sent to do all repair work.

Although all the damage was done only to the west end, the contractors from Commonwealth told us they would have to put new shingles on the entire front of the house because the architectural shingles could not be separated to patch in the replacements. When the shingles were replaced across the entire front, we noticed the shingle rows toward the east end of the house were very irregular. Several rows half way up were as narrow as 2"-3" tall, when these shingles have rows of 5" tall. It was very noticeable and crooked, so we told the work crew to correct that before we would agree the job was complete. The workers then removed the shingles from the area 12 ft. wide by 10 ft high, removed the nails, and placed the shingles back correctly, or so it seemed.

Several years ago, we noticed the shingles near the east end about half way up on the roof surface were beginning to lift and buckle. I called our local insurance agent to ask for help in getting the contractor to look at the roof and fix the problem. Our local agency, Yorco Insurance Agency of York, PA declined my request for help, even though they were the same home insurance agency we had when the damage first happened. We continued to watch the roof to see what was going to happen, and try to figure the cause. Over the late winter/early spring this year, a large section of shingles began to slide away from the east end of the house, first separating from the area near the chimney. I took pictures to send to the contractor, and at first inspection noticed no nails in the shingles that were part of the slide. I sent pictures and letter to Commonweath Corp. in May explaining what I knew at the time about the shingle application problem.

The reply I received from Commonwealth Corporation CEO Suzanne M Delerme dismissed my complaint as a result of rotting wood that would not support the shingles. This roof was replaced just nine years before. The damages to wood they saw in the pictures was a direct result of the shingles pulling away from the brick chimney the past few years, allowing rain to rot the wood, and frequently pour down the walls of our livingroom. Commonwealth Corporation denied any responsibility for the problem, and suggested I file a new claim with our home owners insurance company.

On July 12, the reason for the shingle slide became clear. When we went up to the roof to remove the sliding section of shingles, we were able to lift up large sections at a time and found NO NAILS. In fact, an entire 12 ft wide and 10 ft. high section of the roof had no nails at all except at the top where the
roof peak vent was nailed on the top row of shingles. You could see some nail holes from when they were first put on, but when the roofers were instructed to fix the area they messed up, they removed the nails, then replaced the shingles back on the roof evenly, but without nailing them. Not only do the pictures show large sections of shingles being lifted up containing no nails, we have the testimony of the contractor we hired to correct this mess that he saw no nails in the shingles, and was able to use most of them as they easily separated from each other.

This terrible mess was not just the result of a sloppy, inexperienced contracting crew. We believe this was a deliberate and malicious act done to us because we made the workers from Commonwealth Corporation correct a poorly done job that day in 1998.

Dianne
York, Pennsylvania
U.S.A.