Compare How Each Roofer Wants to Be Paid, and to Whom

A roofing bid tells you what the work costs. It rarely tells you where the money goes. Before you pick a start date, put one question to every roofer on your list: who gets each check, by what method, and at which finished step. The answers should match the contract line for line. If two roofers give you different answers, or one roofer's answer changes when you ask a second time, you have learned something about the bid.

Why the payee matters on a St. Louis roof

A residential roof job here usually runs in stages: a deposit to order materials, a payment when the old roofing comes off, and a final payment after the inspection and the walkthrough. Each of those checks has a payee. In most bids that payee is the company named on the contract. Trouble starts when the payee is a person, a different company, or a name that appears nowhere in the paperwork you signed.

Local weather makes the timing matter. A crew that stops mid-job over a late payment can leave a tear-off open through a spring storm or a hard freeze. The freeze and thaw cycle that moves St. Louis shingles through winter also moves water into any gap you did not know was there. So the payment schedule and the weather plan belong in the same conversation.

How the payment schedule changes the comparison

When you line up three bids, the lowest total can hide a payment schedule that front-loads the money. A bid with a large deposit and a short gap before the final payment asks you to trust the roofer for longer than a bid with smaller stage payments. Neither schedule is wrong by itself. The point is to see both on one sheet so you can judge the exposure, not just the number at the bottom.

Write the stage amounts for each bid in the same rows. Note the trigger for each one beside it, such as materials delivered, tear-off complete, or final walkthrough signed. A bid that cannot name a trigger for every payment has not finished its price.

What to ask each roofer

Use the same five questions for every bidder. Write the answers in the same place on your comparison sheet so they line up side by side.

1. Which company name goes on the check, spelled exactly as it appears on the contract?
2. Which payment methods do you accept, and is any method excluded for a job this size?
3. How much is due at signing, and what is the deposit used for?
4. Which finished step triggers each later payment?
5. Who on your crew, if anyone, is authorized to collect a payment at the house?

The fifth question is the one most homeowners skip. A roofer who says the office handles all payments, and that nobody on the crew takes money, is describing a clean process. A roofer who says the foreman can take a check on the roof, or who cannot say who holds payment authority, has given you a gap to close in writing before you sign.

The office number on this site is (314) 220-2333. Call it and ask the same five questions of Keys Roofing, then ask the other roofers the same thing by phone or email. Write down the name of the person who answers, the date and the time. That record is what you will want if the schedule shifts.

Red flags in a payment request

Some requests should stop the process no matter who makes them:

• A request for cash, or a request to pay a personal account instead of the company.
• A payee that differs from the contractor named in the contract, with no written assignment or change order.
• A large payment asked for before any materials are ordered or any work is scheduled.
• A request to sign a blank completion form or a lien waiver before the final walkthrough.
• Pressure to pay today to hold a crew date, with no written reason for the urgency.

Missouri does not license roofers at the state level, so a roofer's registration with the state tells you nothing about who holds your money. The contract does. If the payee cannot be confirmed through the company's own office, treat that as the answer.

What to get in writing before the first check

Before any money moves, the contract should name the payee, the amount for each stage, the payment method, and the finished step that triggers each payment. It should also say what happens if a stage is not finished on time. Ask for the payment schedule as a separate page, signed with the contract, so the dates and triggers are not buried inside the scope of work.

Keep a copy of every receipt and every payment record. Note the check number, the amount, the date, and the name on the account it was drawn from. If a payment goes out and the roofer later says it never arrived, that record settles the question faster than memory will.

Pay the way the contract says and no other way. If a roofer asks you to change the payee or the method after you sign, ask for the change in writing, with the new payee named and the reason given, before you send anything. A company that is working in good faith will put that change on paper without fuss.