All Service Leads

Can you legally call a roofing lead you bought?

Signature Roofing Leads: $5 a lead, 50-lead minimum ($250 to start). Roofing Inbound Calls: $150 a call, 5-call minimum ($750 to start), a homeowner with a roof problem already on the line when you answer. How inbound calls work.

Every roofing lead you buy is a phone number, and every phone number is governed by rules the seller cannot follow for you. This page sets out what the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission actually require of the business placing the call, quoted from their own text with a link to each one. It is not legal advice, and it is deliberately narrow: the rules that decide whether you may dial the list sitting in your account right now.

Every rule quoted on this page is followed by the government document it comes from and a link to it, so you can read the text rather than take our word for it. It is not legal advice, and it does not cover state telemarketing laws, which are often stricter.

Can you legally call a roofing lead you bought?

The rules do not turn on who sold you the number. Buying a list transfers data, not consent, and the obligations fall on the business placing the call, which is you. What they govern is which numbers you may dial, when you may dial them, and what equipment you may dial with. Each of those is set out below.

The distinction that matters most is how you dial. The Federal Communications Commission's rule at 47 CFR 64.1200(a)(2) requires "the prior express written consent of the called party" before a telemarketing call is placed to a mobile number "using an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice". A person picking up a handset and dialing a number is doing none of those things, which is why manual calling is the ordinary way a roofer works a purchased list.

That exemption is about equipment, not about permission. The Do Not Call rules below apply whichever way you dial, and they are the ones that decide whether a given number on your list may be called at all.

None of this is a substitute for your own advice. The rules are federal, states add their own, and the penalties are set per call. What follows is what the federal text says, with a link to each source so you can read it rather than take our word for it.

How often do you have to scrub against the Do Not Call Registry?

Every 31 days at most. The Federal Trade Commission tells sellers and telemarketers they "must synchronize your lists with an updated version of the registry at least every 31 days". That is a subscription you hold and a step you run against every list, including one you bought this morning from anybody.

The subscription is yours, not your vendor's. The registry is accessed by the seller placing the calls, and the obligation to scrub travels with whoever dials, which is why a lead vendor cannot do it for you in any way that discharges your duty.

Thirty-one days is a ceiling rather than a target. A list bought today and worked over three weeks was scrubbed once; a list worked over two months needs scrubbing again partway through, because numbers are added to the registry every day.

What hours can you call a roofing lead?

Between 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. in the homeowner's time zone, not yours. The Telemarketing Sales Rule at 16 CFR 310.4(c) makes it an abusive practice to call a residence "at any time other than between 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. local time at the called person's location", absent that person's prior consent.

"Local time at the called person's location" is the part that catches people out. A radius of 100 miles can cross a time-zone line, and a crew calling from the eastern edge of one zone at 8:15 a.m. is calling at 7:15 a.m. in the next. The rule follows the homeowner's clock.

It is also a floor rather than the whole answer. States set their own windows and several are narrower than the federal one, so the earliest lawful call in your market may be later than 8:00 a.m.

Does a homeowner's inquiry count as permission to call them?

It creates a short window, and whose window it is matters. The Federal Trade Commission's guidance gives a company an established business relationship exemption "up to 18 months after the consumer's last purchase or last delivery, or last payment", and after an inquiry "the company can call for three months".

Read that sentence closely: it says the company. The homeowner filled in a form, and the question of which business that inquiry established a relationship with is exactly the question a roofer buying the row inherits. It is not a question this page can answer for your situation, and it is the first one worth asking your own advisor.

The exemption is also narrower than it sounds. It is an exemption from the registry, not from everything else: the calling hours still apply, an entity-specific do-not-call request still applies, and the exemption ends the moment the homeowner asks you to stop.

Do the same rules apply to texting a roofing lead?

Treat a text as a call. The FCC writes the two into the same rule, and where 47 CFR 64.1200 defines terms for an exemption it says the word 'call' there "includes a text message, including a short message service (SMS) call". Bulk texting a bought list is the highest-risk thing on this page.

The practical trap is that texting is almost always automated. A person tapping out one message by hand is in a different position from a platform sending five hundred, and the platform is the normal way it is done, which puts most texting of a purchased list squarely inside the rule that requires prior express written consent.

This is the point where the cost of getting it wrong stops being theoretical, because a texting platform leaves a perfect record of exactly how many messages were sent and to whom.

What do you have to do when a homeowner says stop?

Record it and keep honouring it for five years. The FCC's rule is explicit: "A do-not-call request must be honored for 5 years from the time the request is made." That is your own internal list, separate from the national registry, and it has to survive changes of CRM, staff and phone system.

A request made to anyone at your company counts, whether it reaches a canvasser at a door, an office phone, or a text reply. The five-year clock starts when the homeowner asks, not when somebody writes it down.

In practice this is a list you keep and check before every campaign, which is a different list from the national one and cannot be bought, rented or outsourced away.

Does All Service Leads scrub the list for you?

No, and we say so in the terms you accept at checkout. We sell contact data. We do not hold a Do Not Call subscription on your behalf, do not scrub your list, do not check your calling hours and do not verify your credentials. The obligations sit with the business placing the call.

There is a reason to be blunt about it rather than quiet. A vendor that implied it had handled compliance would be selling you a defence you do not have, and the first time it mattered would be the worst possible time to find out.

What we do publish is where the rules come from. Every figure on this page is quoted from the Federal Trade Commission or the Federal Communications Commission and linked below, so you can read the text yourself and take it to somebody qualified to apply it to your business.

For what the lead itself is and what it costs, see [what a Signature Roofing Lead is](/services/roofing-leads/) and [what roofing leads cost in 2026](/roofing-leads-cost/). For whether your state requires a licence before you bid the work, see [roofing license requirements by state](/roofing-license-by-state/).

Frequently asked questions

How much does access to the Do Not Call Registry cost a business?

The Federal Trade Commission runs the registry and charges by area code, with an annual subscription. Fees are set by the FTC and change, so check the current schedule on the registry's own site rather than relying on a figure quoted anywhere else, including here.

Can I call a homeowner who is on the Do Not Call Registry if they asked for a quote?

The Federal Trade Commission's established business relationship exemption runs three months after an inquiry and up to 18 months after a purchase. Whether an inquiry made to a lead generator establishes that relationship with you is the question to put to your own advisor.

Do these rules apply to door knocking?

The rules quoted here govern telephone calls and text messages. Knocking on a door is governed by local solicitation ordinances and permit rules instead, which vary by city and are enforced by the same building departments that issue your permits.

Is this page legal advice?

No. It quotes federal rules and links to their text so a roofing contractor can read them. It does not cover state telemarketing laws, which are often stricter, and it cannot be applied to your business without advice from somebody qualified to give it.

Sources

  1. Federal Trade Commission, "Q&A for Telemarketers & Sellers About DNC Provisions in TSR", checked September 5, 2026, https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/qa-telemarketers-sellers-about-dnc-provisions-tsr-0
  2. Federal Trade Commission, "Complying with the Telemarketing Sales Rule", checked September 5, 2026, https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/complying-telemarketing-sales-rule
  3. US Government Publishing Office, "16 CFR 310.4, Abusive telemarketing acts or practices (calling time restrictions)", 2024 edition, https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/CFR-2024-title16-vol1/CFR-2024-title16-vol1-sec310-4
  4. US Government Publishing Office, "47 CFR 64.1200, Delivery restrictions (consent, do-not-call records, text messages)", 2024 edition, https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/CFR-2024-title47-vol3/CFR-2024-title47-vol3-sec64-1200
  5. Federal Trade Commission, "National Do Not Call Registry, telemarketer and seller portal", checked September 5, 2026, https://telemarketing.donotcall.gov/

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Last updated: September 11, 2026. All Service Leads (formerly RoofRoof) is a lead-generation service and does not perform roofing work. We do not guarantee that any lead or call will become a sale.

Terms, including replacement rules, are at /terms. Third-party figures are quoted from the sources listed above and were correct on the dates shown.