Door-to-door after Harvey-style events: patterns to refuse

Someone knocked. They “just happen to have a crew on your street.” They can start today if you put a deposit in their pocket.

Houston has seen this movie. After Harvey-style floods, storm chasers work the same blocks as real local crews. The pitch is urgency. The tell is cash, no license, and a truck with magnets.

You can want the house gutted today and still shut the door.

Do this now

1. Don’t sign anything on the porch. Don’t hand over cash, a check, or a credit card at the door.
2. Ask for a company name, a Texas address, and a TDLR license number. Write them down yourself.
3. Take a photo of the truck, the plate, and the person if you can do it without a fight.
4. Say you already have help even if you don’t. You can call a real contractor later.
5. If they get aggressive or claim to be the city, that’s 911. The city does not collect cash on your stoop.

Patterns Houston already knows

Houstonians often report the same script: we’re already next door, insurance will pay, today-only price, we only take cash, the roof will collapse tonight. After Harvey, some of those crews did a half gut and vanished. Some took deposits and never came back. Urgency is their product. Your product is a paper trail.

What a real ask looks like

A local company can still knock. They’ll leave a card, a license number, and time for you to check TDLR and call a neighbor they already worked for. They won’t need your flood claim number before you’ve seen a written scope. They won’t ask you to meet them at a gas station with an envelope.

If you already said yes this morning

Stop payment if you can. Save every text. Photograph whatever they did and didn’t do. Then use the fraud reporting path: TDLR, the Texas Attorney General, and the Harris County District Attorney if money walked. Don’t pay “the rest” hoping they’ll finish. That’s how the second half disappears too.

Do this next

1. Checking licenses and references in Texas under pressure
2. Deposits, draws, and never paying all cash up front
3. Commercial providers hub

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