Paying builders.

southcoastrgi

a contract detailing works,
10% deposit, receipt given,
stage payments every 2 weeks,

these are perfectly normal ways of doing business, you trust the builder to do a good job & he trusts you to pay him, it works both ways

southcoastrgi

DandelionPatrol wrote: »

Fortnightly sounds terrible to me. All to easy for the builder to play you and slack imperceptibly. At some point your payments go ahead of what he has actually done. Once your payments are ahead by about the profit he would get on the job, it is not worth him doing your job to completion. So he probably will not.

Always leave him a little short until the job is done. To achieve this you should pay on progress with an agreed schedule of payments against progress.

leave him a little short !!

why the hell should you, he has done the work & you should pay him, I don't know about programs like cowboy builders they should make one about cowboy customers

DandelionPatrol

southcoastrgi wrote: »

leave him a little short !!

why the hell should you, he has done the work & you should pay him, I don't know about programs like cowboy builders they should make one about cowboy customers

You got it wrong and no need to explode.

Not leave him a little short, leave him a little short until the job is done. But never leave him owed very much. So when he has done the job he is paid in full.

Anyone in employment is in more or less the position I am proposing - the employer nearly always owes some money.

Now tell me, do you get a customers to pay ahead of the progress you make on a job?

EssexExile

WE had a £45,000 extension done, three payments of £15,000 in arrears, the last one after all the snagging was completed. We weren't asked for any money ahead of schedule. I can't remember ever paying anything up front for this sort of work.

DandelionPatrol

southcoastrgi wrote: »

a contract detailing works,
10% deposit, receipt given,
stage payments every 2 weeks,

these are perfectly normal ways of doing business, you trust the builder to do a good job & he trusts you to pay him, it works both ways

Stage payments by time are not normal. Stage payments by progress on reach milestones is normal.

zaax

Three payments. First payment when the place is water tight. Second when the furnishings are due to go in and final payment when competed.

Furts

zaax wrote: »

Three payments. First payment when the place is water tight. Second when the furnishings are due to go in and final payment when competed.

I would not work on these terms, I would not expect a builder to work for me on these terms, and the construction industry does not work on these terms.

To shed light on some earlier posts, southcoastrgi is correct. By us both referring to two weekly payments these are stage payments. A builder can produce a considerable amount of work in two weeks. Typically the site will be cleared, the foundations and drainage will be in, the oversite prepared and the ground floor in. Hence a payment is called for. Similarly from dpc up to wall plate is achievable in two weeks. Hence another payment is called for - though if a two storey extension then a payment should be made at joist level.

Stevie_Palimo

Yes payments should be split on this type of work and the builder needs money to for wages and materials so cannot be expected to wait for the place to be Nye on finished prior to getting anything, The other thing here is any decent builders will also have a credit facility with the builders merchants that help them in initial stages of work.

DandelionPatrol

Furts wrote: »

I would not work on these terms, I would not expect a builder to work for me on these terms, and the construction industry does not work on these terms.

To shed light on some earlier posts, southcoastrgi is correct. By us both referring to two weekly payments these are stage payments. A builder can produce a considerable amount of work in two weeks. Typically the site will be cleared, the foundations and drainage will be in, the oversite prepared and the ground floor in. Hence a payment is called for. Similarly from dpc up to wall plate is achievable in two weeks. Hence another payment is called for - though if a two storey extension then a payment should be made at joist level.

So what happens if in the 2 weeks where we are supposed to get the ground floor in, the builder only gets as far as clearing the site? Would you pay him? For the work up to getting the ground floor in?

I doubt you would and in this respect, southcoastrgi is not correct. Even if you really mean that the work is paid for in 2 week blocks but only on completion of the stage even if it is at 3 weeks, in this forum, it is misleading to refer to fortnightly payments. That is because in this forum, people will understand it to mean payment every 2 weeks, which will set them up for exploitation by a cowboy builder in the way I outlined in my first post. Unfortunately thiscaused soutcoastrgi to accuse me of being a cowboy customer when all I am trying to do is illustrate how fortnightly payments can get you on the wrong side of a cowboy builder.

Furts

DandelionPatrol wrote: »

So what happens if in the 2 weeks where we are supposed to get the ground floor in, the builder only gets as far as clearing the site? Would you pay him? For the work up to getting the ground floor in?

I doubt you would and in this respect, southcoastrgi is not correct. Even if you really mean that the work is paid for in 2 week blocks but only on completion of the stage even if it is at 3 weeks, in this forum, it is misleading to refer to fortnightly payments. That is because in this forum, people will understand it to mean payment every 2 weeks, which will set them up for exploitation by a cowboy builder in the way I outlined in my first post. Unfortunately thiscaused soutcoastrgi to accuse me of being a cowboy customer when all I am trying to do is illustrate how fortnightly payments can get you on the wrong side of a cowboy builder.

If you re-read my post you will see the word "say". This was written to represent a typical example of payment times and to indicate time frames for having the money ready to pay the builder.

The broader picture is one of cowboy builders existing. The brutal truth that consumers choose not to consider is that without cowboy consumers then cowboy builders could not exist. It is a simple supply and demand equation.

Consumers choose to engage cowboy builders then complain when they get caught out. It is a ridiculous situation because the cowboy builders are far more savvy than the cowboy consumers so there will inevitably be only one winner. It has always been so, but it is far more prevalent today than it ever was. And it is getting worse!