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Your rights under Colorado's roofing law

Colorado passed a consumer-protection law specifically about residential roofing after the 2012 hail season. Most homeowners have never heard of it. It gives you a written contract, 72 hours to walk away, your deposit held in trust, and a flat prohibition on the one offer you are most likely to be tempted by.

Last verified 5 August 2026

What must be in your contract

SB 38 requires a written contract signed by both you and the roofing company. It has to include, at minimum:

1. The scope of the work and the materials to be provided, including the shingle type and colour, not just “roof replacement.”
2. The cost of the work and materials, based on the damage known at the time you sign.
3. Identification and contact details for the contractor's surety and liability insurer.
4. The cancellation and refund policy, including a clause letting you rescind within 72 hours of signing and get your full deposit back.
5. A statement that you may rescind within 72 hours of receiving written notice that your insurance claim has been denied.
6. A statement that any payment you make is held in trust until the contractor has delivered materials to the site or performed a majority of the work.
7. A statement that if you are paying through an insurance claim, the contractor cannot pay, waive or rebate your deductible in whole or in part.

If a contract is missing these, it may be found unenforceable by either party, which sounds like it favours you, but rarely plays out that way in practice. A court can still require you to pay a reasonable amount for work actually performed. The real protection is refusing to sign a contract that does not contain them.

The deductible rule, and why it matters more than it looks

This is the part of the law that catches the most people. A roofing contractor in Colorado may not pay, waive, rebate, or promise to pay, waive or rebate any part of your insurance deductible. Advertising such an offer is also prohibited.

Salespeople still offer it, and they dress it up: a “storm discount” that happens to equal your deductible, a “referral credit,” free gutters worth exactly $1,000. The Colorado Roofing Association's position is that the intent of the law is to eliminate the practice, and renaming the payment does not make it legal. Interference by a third party in the agreement between you and your insurer can be treated as insurance fraud, and that exposure is not only the contractor's.

There is also a practical consequence that has nothing to do with prosecution: if a contractor promises to cover your deductible, your insurer is not obligated to consider that contractor's estimate at all. You can lose the claim scope you were counting on.

Your roofer is not your adjuster

SB 38 also prohibits a roofing contractor from acting as a public adjuster, or claiming to be one, on work that same contractor is performing. That does not stop a good contractor from documenting damage, meeting your adjuster on the roof, or filing supplements for things that got missed, that work is normal and genuinely valuable. It does mean the person negotiating your claim as an adjuster cannot also be the person selling you the roof. If someone describes themselves as “your adjuster” while quoting the job, that is the wrong hat.

Licensing: what “licensed” actually means here

Colorado does not issue a statewide roofing licence. Plumbing and mechanical contractors are licensed by the state; roofers are not. So a company saying “licensed and insured” without naming a jurisdiction has told you almost nothing.

What exists instead is municipal licensing, and it varies. In Denver, a roofing contractor needs a Supervisor certificate and a Specialty Class D licence, either “Roofing–Shingles” for residential only, or “Roof Covering/Waterproofing” for residential and commercial including low-slope systems. Without it, they cannot pull a permit in the city. Aurora requires its own supervisor licence and roofing contractor licence. Other Front Range cities have their own rules.

Two consequences worth knowing. First, a company can be a legitimately registered Colorado business and still have no licence to roof your house in your city. After a big hail event, plenty of out-of-state operations arrive with a state business registration and nothing else. Second, the permit is your paper trail: if no permit is pulled, there is no inspection, and a missing permit can complicate both your warranty and the resale of your home.

You can check a Denver licence directly with Denver Community Planning and Development, and you can confirm the permit for your address on the city's permit portal. Ask for the licence number before signing, not after.

An honest note on enforcement

These are real legal requirements, but they are not aggressively policed. Industry sources have observed that it is unclear whether anyone has ever been prosecuted under the deductible provisions. Treat SB 38 less as a shield that will save you afterwards and more as a checklist that tells you who you are dealing with beforehand. A contractor whose contract meets the law and who declines to play games with your deductible is showing you how the rest of the job will go.

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