should i pay a deposit by cheque to my supplier

stolt

hi, quick advice needed. We are looking to get a frameless glass extension built on the back of our house. we are due to meet tomorrow with the salesguy and he is bringing a contract to arrange the survey etc and he has asked for 10% deposit. He said he can only tak a cheque which made me concerned as i thought if he goes out of business then i have lost my 10% (3400).

is it fair of me to say i will pay for the suveyor to carry out his survey first and then pending that pay a deposit, there not a huge company and they supply a one stop shop specialised unit.

Errata

Presumably the surveyor is going to find out if it's doable. Depending on the outcome of that, the supplier should then be in a position to give you a firm quotation for doing the work. Depending on that, you will decide if you want to go ahead with it or not.
If you decide to go ahead, try and haggle on the deposit and tell them you'd like to pay that with a credit card.

stolt

I think its doable so to speak its a case of the surveyor advising on what is needed regarding quantity of materials etc. I mentioned this morning that. Can't find my chqbook as its in a packing box somewhere so credit card is the only way . Looks like it might finish before it started.

sheslookinhot

Give him nothng until the survey has been done and you agree to the work

derrick

Paying on a credit card, (any amount), gives you total protection under Section 75 if the builder does go under, cheques/cash.debit card don't.

From WHICH; -

When you can claim against your card company
There are some limitations to when a card company is liable along with the retailer or trader. The goods or services you have bought must have cost between £100 and £30,000.
However, you don’t have to have paid the full amount on your credit card – the card company is liable even if you made only part of the payment (a deposit, say) on your card. And this part-payment can be as little as £1 (but no more than £25,000).
Also, the law applies only to credit cards and not to debit cards (such as Visa Delta or Maestro) or charge cards (where all charges must be settled at the end of the month).

LandyAndy

Also look at getting a retention of say 5% (10% if you can) that will be payable after 3 months providing the work is satisfactory. This will give you some leverage if there are faults that are not immediately apparent.

stolt

andrew-b wrote: »

...and how can they know your going to pay up all £34k or that your circumstances won't change? For example you might be made redundant and not be able to afford to pay up. You might be a higher risk to them than the other way round. You can do various things to protect your own interests though..paying by credit card is one. Another is having Deposit Indemnity insurance. The Consumer Protection Association for example (recently had dealings with companies belonging to CPA so i've got their booklet in front of me) offer this insurance to cover you against the company going out of business (requires the company to be a member of such scheme plus relevant paperwork to be completed). Does this company belong to any such organisation? I believe alot of the window companies belong to this sort of organisation as its part of the requirement for FENSA/CertAss registration (incidentally check they belong to one of those too).

Andy

wel thats true but in this current climate then i guess it applies to both the company and me, i dont mind paying a deposit once the survey has been sorted and we have a list of what work is to be done etc. or pay a deposit once the first bit of groundwork has been done. Just worries me as I'm based down south and the company is based in peterborough and as i say arent a large company.

stolt

just checked on the phone and the salesguy is coming down toour house tonight with the contracts, he mentione the cpa i played dumb and mentioned fensa and he said no thats to cover you for gaurantees on the windows rather than a deposit. he mentioned the cpa and said that we will be covered upto 10k so i feel a little better now over it.

he said that they require a deposit and then the surveyor comes out thats the way work. i wouldnt mind but the 10% works out at 3400 so its a fair bit of money to lose.

thanks for your help

stolt

andrew-b wrote: »

Goto here
Click on the links from the two orange boxes for deposit protection and insurance backed guarantee. In particular you have to fill in a form supplied by your installer in order to protect your deposit or get the insurance-backed guarantee. The two companies i've recently dealt with i didn't have the deposit protection ...but one didn't ask for a deposit and the other i paid via credit card so it didn't matter and it was much smaller sums of money involved. If your not sure phone up CPA...they have been very helpful to me when i've phoned them twice recently. It's worth phoning just to check they are members of the CPA - if you have their membership number you can check via the website though.

Andy

hi, thanks, yes i did look a cpa on google and see you could check the supplier out.

derrick

andrew-b wrote: »

...and how can they know your going to pay up all £34k or that your circumstances won't change? For example you might be made redundant and not be able to afford to pay up. You might be a higher risk to them than the other way round. You can do various things to protect your own interests though..paying by credit card is one. Another is having Deposit Indemnity insurance. The Consumer Protection Association for example (recently had dealings with companies belonging to CPA so i've got their booklet in front of me) offer this insurance to cover you against the company going out of business (requires the company to be a member of such scheme plus relevant paperwork to be completed). Does this company belong to any such organisation? I believe alot of the window companies belong to this sort of organisation as its part of the requirement for FENSA/CertAss registration (incidentally check they belong to one of those too).

Andy

I missed the point re the total for this job, £34000 ? If this is the case, my post #5 is not relevant as the Section 75 protection is only valid up to £30000. so this project falls out of that protection!

stolt

Thanks for all the replies, turned out it was a 25%deposit but I have a insurance form that has been completed so just need to post that off within 7 days.