Paying builders.

KamSandhu44

Hi all,

Lots of replies, thank you very much. Some good info.

I had a convo with my builder last night and this is what was suggested.

A 10% deposit (with receipt).

He will pay for all the agreed materials and pass me all the receipts, I will then pay him for materials once they are delivered.

Staged payments as work is completed with a £15k retention until all parties are satisfied.

Does this sound reasonable?

garryselby

Well clever man who says get bigger building company sorry your idiot ,
it works both ways how many get builders to pay for everything to then say Oh by the way we dont acctualy have any money so I would put the money in a account show the builder its there and available .
Big company may or be not trusted but third your money pays back office not the work ,take British Gas
offer you the earth great deals money off to replace your boiler we can actualy put a better boiler in for close to half the cost of them . so moving on he has to buy the materials make sure you trust him but I wouldn't shell out thousands with people I dont know and fancy houses fancy cares mean Jack S they are probably all on finance thats the world now trust no one same for both sides , get list of jobs he as done then go ask them if happy get on with it .

Furts

KamSandhu44 wrote: »

Hi all,

Lots of replies, thank you very much. Some good info.

I had a convo with my builder last night and this is what was suggested.

A 10% deposit (with receipt).

He will pay for all the agreed materials and pass me all the receipts, I will then pay him for materials once they are delivered.

Staged payments as work is completed with a £15k retention until all parties are satisfied.

Does this sound reasonable?

The problem is that you do not know the materials price, nor the labour price, nor the profit margin. Any deal is based on negotiation - if you are happy with this out come then fine.

I would be reluctant to agree unless I had clearly detailed break downs of the labour cost for all the pre-agreed stages of work.

Your scenario suggests that either the builder is wary of you, or of where you live, or has tight cash flow, or has been caught out before and is wary.

But this may be the best deal for your circumstances.

tea-bag

I am getting 15k of work done and it is pay on completion.(I have put the m9ny in preimum bonds!)

teneighty

The trouble with paying for materials on delivery is that they still do not belong to you.

If your builder does not settle his account at the builders merchants they will come and take it all back as it still belongs to them.

Make sure the receipts you are given are for payment in full and not just a delivery note or an account statement from the builders merchants.

usman330

Careful with paying upfront, once you do this you have lost control and will feel like your not able to fully say what you want to say, a lot of tradesmen change their attitude once they have the cash and will happily look for any reason to quit and walk away with the money