Have you heard about the recent roofing scam affecting seniors? Who can you trust when you need roof repairs, have a leak, or you need your annual roof “check up”?

Our blogs often focus on Medicare tips or specific senior related services to help you on your Medicare journey. I continue to reference the importance of building a strong Medicare or Senior Healthcare Team of specialists and resources that complement each other and your short and long term healthcare plan in retirement. A very important (and not mentioned enough) part of successful and healthy aging in place is having a trusted team of contractors to provide reliable and fair maintenance and repairs to your home as you age in place. One of the most important services to have performed by properly trained and licensed tradespeople is Roofing.

Everyone wants to know that their mothers, fathers, and grandparents are going to be safe and not taken advantage of if leaks, hail damage, or other issues affect their roof or neighborhood. With the onslaught of spam texting and phone calls, mailers, door flyers and even door to door scam attempts, Seniors are left not knowing who to trust. We asked The Philadelphia Roof Doctor how they protect their clients.

• According to The Philadelphia Roof Doctor, Seniors can be easily scammed into thinking their roof needs unnecessary repairs, that fictitious inspections are required or even tricked into paying for work that was never performed!
• Seniors or older homeowners are not always likely or capable to ever check if work was done on the roof.
• Our team is properly trained, licensed, and insured and can be verified by things like Google, Yelp and the Philadelphia L&I website.
• We are consistently improving our skills and services by being trained and licensed in the most high quality, environmentally safe, energy efficient roofing products.
• We live in the same community that we roof in.
• Our neighbors are our friends and family, and we protect them from roofing scams by educating them and making their safety our first priority.
• We also take your time very seriously and pride ourselves on our communication with our clients throughout the duration of each job.
• We are committed to constant improvement in technique and technology, while keeping our personal touch of the family owned roofing company we have always been.

*Local Trusted Resource* is a list compiled by me. Disclaimer, there is not "one magic list" out there of trusted partners, however, I aim to share any "Tara Verified" tips I can that will improve the level of confidence and independence that can gained by my clients (and all seniors). I know that having a wide support net available can help improve lives simply by empowering people with knowledge and by removing unnecessary anxiety by communicating effeciently. There are many people living alone, and in this post-covid time, a friendly face is priceless.

Even many of the insurance companies are partnering with local resources to create a larger support system for all of us as we age into our Senior years and onto Medicare plans. Part of my mission as a Medicare and Senior Healthcare Planner is to learn about all the resources available to seniors locally and nationally and dig into the details of the senior services that I feel could be beneficial to clients, seniors, families and caregivers. I am proud to be a part of a community that watches out for each other, especially our older neighbors. Stay safe and until next time, check out the Roof Doctor!

If you feel you have a victim of a scam, you can learn what to do HERE. It lists some helpful contact information about how to protect yourself and where to report Senior Scams. If your scam is related to Medicare, you can learn what to do HERE.