At least 1,866 Polk County homeowners received foreclosure notices last year.
Sarah Taylor — a 73-year-old cancer survivor who has never missed a mortgage payment — never thought she’d be one of them.
But now Taylor is facing the possible loss of the ranch-style, Kathleen-area home she has lived in since 1987. The ordeal began when she believed a salesman who assured her that a new roof would be fully covered by insurance, she says.
Jacksonville-based Florida Roof Specialists Inc. has put a lien on Taylor’s home for $21,774 plus not-yet-tallied interest and legal costs. It has also petitioned the court to order that her house be sold to pay the claim.
The case is on a “streamlined track” in the 10th Judicial Circuit with a projected trial date of May 2026.
A ‘pattern of complaints’: Taylor’s story is similar to those of 19 one-star reviewers of Florida Roof Specialists on Google, 38 people who filed complaints about the company with the Better Business Bureau and at least 61 homeowners who filed complaints about Florida Roof Specialists with the State Attorney General’s consumer protection division.
The Better Business Bureau has given the company a D+ rating, saying there is a “pattern of complaints.”
The Florida Attorney General’s office told First Coast News in August that it is actively investigating the company.
RELATED: Polk County has nation's highest foreclosure rate
A knock at the door
In the summer of 2023, a crew of three salespeople — a woman and two men — canvassed the Rolling Oaks community, knocking on doors and offering free roof inspections and quotes.
Taylor, who needed a new roof, agreed.
Reassuring answers: In the discussion that followed, she recalls asking the young-looking salesman, “Am I going to have to pay extra money on the house after the insurance and stuff?”
“He said, ‘No, it will be covered completely by your insurance. You won’t have to pay anything except the $1,000 deductible.’”
Differing cost estimates: The estimate from Florida Roof Specialists was high: $32,997 to re-shingle the 2,640-square-foot roof. But Taylor doesn’t remember seeing or hearing that figure then.
Nor does she remember anyone telling her that if there was any rotten wood under the old shingles, lumber would add to the cost.
She sent the itemized 6-page estimate to her insurer, Hartford Insurance Company of the Midwest.
About a month later, they countered that the roof should cost $15,149 — which they were willing to pay, minus Taylor’s $1,000 deductible.
With the verbal reassurance that the insurance money would be enough, Taylor moved ahead. She mailed the insurance check to the company as soon as she got it, and the new roof was installed in December 2023.
Watching every dime: Taylor lives on Social Security and has struggled financially, balancing chemotherapy and surgeries with copayments for medications and specialist visits.
She doesn’t get disability assistance, despite skin cancer, Parkinson’s disease and a host of other ailments. She says she used to get about $150 a month in food stamps, but that went down to $23 monthly last May.
So Taylor is budget-conscious, noting proudly that she hasn’t run her air conditioner or heater for six years. If she had known the insurance money would cover less than half of the new roof, “I never would have said yes. No way,” she says.
Now she’s being sued for $21,744 — the original estimate plus $3,882 for lumber, minus what her insurance paid.
LkldNow contacted the salesman Thursday, but he declined to comment and said he no longer works for Florida Roof Specialists.
The company did not return a voicemail message Thursday.
Looming court battle: The case is now in the 10th Judicial Circuit’s civil court for Polk County — along with 19 others filed by Florida Roof Specialists against Polk homeowners over the past two years.
Taylor said she met with a lawyer from Legal Aid in December who told her not to worry.
“He told me, ‘You’re not the only one like that. This company has been doing that to a lot of senior citizens and a lot of Spanish speakers who don’t have a good vocabulary in English.’”
But Taylor is worried.
Court records show that one of the two judges hearing the cases ruled against an 82-year-old Haines City man last year and ordered that his house be sold. He saved his home at the last minute by borrowing money to pay Florida Roof Specialists.
Around the same time, an 83-year-old man and his 82-year-old wife lost their Winter Haven home after the other judge ruled against them.
A few of the Polk County cases have been resolved by mediation. But most, like Taylor’s, are pending.
To report concerns about a business
- Call the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division toll free at 1-866-NO-SCAM
- Submit a consumer complaint online
- File a complaint with the Better Business Bureau here.
LkldNow’s Insight Polk independent reporting initiative is made possible by the Community Indicators Project with funding by GiveWell Community Foundation & United Way of Central Florida. All editorial decisions are made by LkldNow.
Cindy Glover is a reporter for LkldNow, a nonprofit newsroom providing independent local news for Lakeland. Read at LkldNow.com.
