Payment schedule for builders/other trades

not_tonight_josephine_2

Hi everyone - we're about to have a fair bit of work done on our house (mixture of decorating, some carpentry, flooring etc) and just wondering if anyone can advise what is the "norm" in terms of payment schedule for these type of works?

Most quotes I am getting seem to want the majority of the payment upfront with only a small amount to be paid on completion of the works. I'm not entirely comfortable with this and would prefer to pay the majority on successful completion so that I can be sure they've done a good job, however if this is the normal way of operating then I guess there's no point in me pushing it too much.

We'll be supplying all materials so it's labour costs only.

Thanks for any input

iamcornholio

Never pay more than the value of work completed - you don't want to have paid 80% of the value when only 40% of the work is complete

As you are paying labour only, there is absolutely no reason to pay up front or for work not completed.

Also keep some retention either from stage payments or the completed job to cover any issues in a 6 or 12 month defect liability period

I really can't see why any contractor would want or even need paying up front for a labour only contract

not_tonight_josephine_2

Thanks for that - that was my assumption to be honest but I'm not very good at this whole negotiation thing so wanted to make sure I wasn't asking for something unreasonable/unusual before raising it!

phill99

It depends on the level of work and the amount of time that they are expected to be on site.

If you expect them to be on site for say 6 weeks and you are paying labour only, then its not really appropriate to expect a tradesman to go so long without payment.

Most tradesmen on sub contract get paid weekly so their finances are arranged to work round this. They have families too as well as bills to pay. You wouldn't expect to go say 6 or 8 weeks without payment.

Maybe pay them weekly with a percentage left on retention for any defects that may occur.

I think you may find if you expect to pay all at the end of the job they may vote with their feet.

So how much is the job worth and how long do they expect to be on site?

macman

Depends on the total value and timescale of the job. A few hundred, a few days, you wouldn't expect stage payments.
Something longer, and bigger; you would, especially if the contractor is buying in parts and materials.

nickj_2

if a job will take me 2 weeks then i normally just invoice people at the end and expect prompt payment , however any more than 2 weeks then i ask for part payment ,

DVardysShadow

As it is labour only, you need prices for different jobs of up to a weeks work and pay on completion of each of those jobs. If the tradesmen you have don't like this, then you have the wrong tradesmen. If you pay in full immediately on completion of each job, any decent tradesman will be happy to continue job by job.

Never pay day rate either. It just increases the number of days.

smitchy73

I've got my kitchen being done at the moment and I arranged to pay a third of it just after they started, a third on the start of the installation of the kitchen, and the last third on satisfactory completion. They were quite happy with this, work will have gone on for about two weeks due to a delay with half of the kitchen units, but involved a full strip back to the brick, re-routing of water and gas pipes as well as re-doing the electrics, fitting of the kitchen and new flooring too.