Safety of deposit?

Daniel1111

We are thinking of going ahead with a job in the garden, which is allowed. He is wanting a £1k deposit to get materials. I have used this tradesman before so there is no issue from that point of view, but, if things were to fall through and for whatever reason he cannot do the job, do we have any safety at all in terms of getting the deposit back? The deposit is being requested as a bank transfer.

Thanks!

tacpot12

You should sign a contract with him that makes it clear that you are giving him £1k to buy materials that are then your property, not his.  Giving him the problem of sourcing them and storing them until the job starts is a good idea. The contract should make it clear that he owns you either £1000 cash or £1000 of materials at all times. Under the circumstances, your contract should also pre-decide what will happen if he can't start the work for some time, or ever (He could catch the virus and die if he is still leaving his house.)

bris

Bottom line there is no options to recover a bank transfer so you either trust him or you don't. 
If you want to be sure then you can insist you pay the suppliers direct for the goods, this may well be taken as an insult to his name though but thats another problem to deal with later.