Home extension

StarTrekkie007

Hello,

I am planning on a costly home extension on my house. Since this will be thousands of pounds I was wondering if there is any way to protect my money if anything goes wrong
(e.g. rouge builder).

With any purchase you make on credit card, your payment is protected by the credit card company.

With PayPal your payment is protected by PayPal's own protection scheme.


So is there a way to protect my money when paying for a costly home extension ?

Slithery

e.g. rouge builder

Why does it matter what colour your builder is?

Pay in stages without releasing the final payment until you are satisfied.

System

do it by the book, get planning permission, get building regs approval, prepare contract documents, tender the works to at least three contractors, use a contract administrator throughout the works and use a proper form of contract....

Doozergirl

the_r_sole wrote: »

do it by the book, get planning permission, get building regs approval, prepare contract documents, tender the works to at least three contractors, use a contract administrator throughout the works and use a proper form of contract....

It's all about what you do before. Check their references, go and see previous jobs and talk to their clients. Check insurances, agree stage payments based on actual work completed, have some paperwork.

Bear in mind that contractors are also extending a credit line to you though. Every hour of work and material delivers on site is an extension of trust to you, also. It's important that you treat people with as much respect as you demand.

EachPenny

Slithery wrote: »

Why does it matter what colour your builder is?

'Rouge' might raise questions as to whether he is going to drop down dead halfway through the job?

Otherwise I'd agree with all the other comments... the one thing I'd add is when viewing other work or speaking to other clients, retain some scepticism as to whether they are genuinely jobs the prospective builder has done. (It's quite easy to show you an extension on a mate's house that neither the builder nor the mate had anything to do with building).

Try and visit a site the builder is currently working on, not just the finished article. You can tell a lot about a builder from how the site looks.

G_M

Contractually agreed staged payment plan so that you are never paying in adance, only for work actually completed to the satisfaction of your surveyor.