Builder Requsting Deposit 9 Months Before Work Starts

Hermione_Granger

Doozergirl wrote: »

Quote me where I have said to pay him £7000!

How can I possibly quote something that I didn't write?
What I posted was

Hermione_Granger wrote: »

If the OP was to do as the builder has asked and pays him £7000 then between now and August next year when the job is due to start

What was it that you stated to another poster about being misquoted?

However, you did state that "Trust is a two way street" but you've not responded as to how in the case in hand this applies as everything is relying on the OP trusting the builder and the builder doesn't need to trust the OP at all.

As you have some regular customers you must be doing a good job at a good price but when it comes to a householder taking a risk with an unknown company or sole trader this isn't always the case and many people have lost money due to businesses folding before the work has been completed or even started.
Just take the example in post 17 yesterday.
In that case it was £400, a loss that wouldn't be too bad for many people.
A loss of £7000 is a different matter.

Doozergirl

I didn't quote you at all, but why quote me and reply to me as if I've advocated giving the guy £7k? Especially when i clarified that I hadn't!

Hermione_Granger wrote: »

It appears that on two way streets in your part of the country there is far more traffic going in one direction than the other.

The bit about my part of the country doesn't even make sense as I was referring to an emerging trend on this board, not about my area or what I do.

Post 17. Contract signed for that £417? The issue isn't really even the £417 as they could have witheld the money from their payments and let the builder chase them for it. It's the same guy. If his first company doesn't exist it can't chase payment. But I'll put my money on the OP doing little in the way of due diligence, no ongoing valuations being produced or stage payments agreed based on work completed, agreed before work started. The deposit should be deducted from the first payment. If the builder can't do it transparently, then someone else needs to employed to manage the contract. And provide some sort of common sense on whether a price is realistic.

The OP there has allowed the build to run away and overpaid through the project.

This stuff costs time and money which people aren't prepared to spend. For clarification, a 'good price' is not a cheap price. For every one of those terrible programs about 'cowboy builders', a lot of the prices quoted initially were ridiculously low and completely unachievable. It makes the builder a complete idiot, but they don't wander off with buckets of cash. If they were genuinely profitable, the company wouldn't fold. Even if someone falls foul of a badly priced job, if their stage payments are proportionate and paid at agreed points, the job will go wrong sooner rather than later.

The only way to MSE a build is to project manage yourselves and take on the risk element.

I hate paperwork, but I always base my invoices off work carried out and payments due myself as I can see how profitable we are all the time. Not many builders come from a background of business management.

The job of running a business is running a business, not doing what you do.