The family woke up to the sound of footsteps on their roof at Kilburn about 4am.

“It’s scary, but I don’t know how he got up there, very, very high,” one resident told 9News.

“My husband asked me, ‘who’s on the roof’, and I said ‘yeah, someone’s on the roof’, we jump, we run out from the room,” his wife said.

Their 23-year-old son was awake and noticed a hole appearing in his ceiling. 

“I think they use the foot to break through,” they said. 

The family thought it may have been a tradie returning to start work, after having solar panels installed just last week.

The man had allegedly removed roof tiles to get inside the roof cavity, when another nearby resident spotted him on the roof, and tried to talk him out of it.

“I asked him what he was doing up there … I was distracting him before police arrived,” he said.

Police negotiated with the man until he finally climbed down from the roof by ladder.

The 42-year-old from interstate was arrested and charged with being unlawfully on the premises, property damage and unlawful possession.

He didn’t apply for bail and will appear in court on Monday.