Credit Control?

[The Medway Handyman]

Having any bad payers I view as a management failure. I don't give credit to anyone. I have enough work coming in to be selective in what I take on.

Exactly what I do with a decking quote. The deposit is 50%, payment of the balance on completion of the job to the customers satisfaction (hence no retention).

Why not? I don't run monthly acounts with my suppliers, so I would have to fund the materials for anything up to a fortnight for a decking job. That involve a high risk for me and a financial cost.

Can you imagine if I went into Jewsons & asked to open a credit acount with a £22K limit if they had never done business with me, didn't know me & I couldn't supply trade & bank references?

Entertainment agents ask for a deposit up front - around 20% (their fee) and full payment before the event. You also sign an Equity contract with a cancellation clause agreeing to payment in full if the booking is cancelled with less than 3 months notice.

[Tim Southerwood]

Doki coughed up some electrons that declared:

IME it actually works more extremely like that. New supplier: 100% cash up front on a pro-forma invoice until you've bought enough things to prove your worthy of credit... Getting credit terms is not actually trivial for a small business.

Unless the customer is known to the contractor, stage payments sound quite reasonable.

Tim

[Cicero]

>>>>>>>>> Not a good businessman for several reasons:

================================== Maybe it's a matter of scale. The Medway Man is probably doing jobs costing a few hundreds of pounds at most, with a timescale of days, which is the nature of 'handyman' jobs. A builder is often working for thousands of pounds over weeks or months. Most people would be happy to pay 50% of a few hundred pounds but would baulk at 50% of thousands.

Cic.

[geoff]

Even some would do it themselves

[dennis]

That's what credit cards are for, 20k free for a few weeks.

[John Rumm]

Nothing, its a pigment of your imagination. ;-)

[Andy Hall]

Farb from it

[The Medway Handyman]

I really only ask for deposits on decking jobs, the largest of which has been just under £2K for the job, deposit of 50% of that. Average decking job is around £1200, so £600 deposit.

[nightjar]

>>>>>>>>>>> Not a good businessman for several reasons:

Perhaps, but to me, a request for 50% up front would make it fairly obvious to me that the tradesman needed the money to buy materials. That implies that he does not have an account at the local trade suppliers, which in turn suggests that he has problems getting credit and is probably operating on a very tight margin. If that is the case, there is a higher than average chance that his business could fail at any time, which is not good news if he happens to be working on your job when it does, particularly if he has used your money to finance a previous job.

Colin Bignell

[dennis]

"nightjar.me.uk>" Perhaps, but to me, a request for 50% up front would make it fairly

"I" would prefer to pay by credit card so "I" get cover for things going wrong. Then there needs to be a deposit of at least £100 for the law to kick in.

[nightjar]

If the trader has managed to get a merchant number to accept cards that, in itself, is a good sign. However, you could end up paying more for using a card - it is quite legal to have one price for cash and another for card payments. The difference must be a reasonable reflection of the extra cost of processing the card, although it is more likely to manifest itself as 'I'll knock off £X for cash Guv' than as a surcharge for card payment..

Colin Bignell

[Andrew Gabriel]

I was intreagued that when the porch roof hit the ground, all the tiles just fell away as a single solid sheet. Presumably you can buy large sheets of plastic which look like a roof of redland tiles? Never seen that before.

[Andrew Gabriel]

I've never had a builder or other workman ask for a deposit. I would probably pay up to 10-20% if asked. I did have one builder who out of the blue, asked for what was about 15% part payment halfway through, in order to pay his labourer on the Friday. They were both doing an excellent job, so I was happy to oblige with that.

[Andrew Gabriel]

It said that on the news last night (about the council having given permission for him to demolish it). However, she is now liable for putting the house back as it was, which was estimated will cost some more thousands.

[fred]

In article , Andrew Gabriel writes

I was questioning whether the council, having given permission for the building of the porch/conservatory, had the authority to give the builder permission to remove it based on the issue of the debt alone. If they gave permission for it to be removed then I believe any damage caused to the (their) property is their own responsibility.

I would add that I have no time for the woman at the centre of the row but that doesn't make the behaviour of the builder or the council right or lawful.

IANAL

[John Rumm]

Maybe the tile batten came un-nailed from the roof in preference to the tiles unailing from the batten?

[Brian Sharrock]

That's a big assumption! Wihout knowing the exact address - 'Shoreham' is a bit vague- it's not possible to btoese the 'planning' sction of and determine whether planning consent and/or building reg apporval was given for the porch/conservatory. Do you know somethng I don't? Can you share it?

By and large 'porches' do not need planning consent (with some constraints) and a _true_ consevatory may be within the 'Permitted Development' volume for a dwelling

Was that the basis? Do you know somethng I don't? Can you share it?

The dwelling may have had (and seems from the 'photos) to have some of the rendering temoved from the dwelling and to have a lead flashing above the porch. One wonders whether the conservatory has broached the integrity of the rear external walla. The erecions may have 'damaged' (= made alterarion to) the dwelling which may require restoration to the previous status. Do you know somethng I don't? Can you share it?

[Steve Firth]

Mine wouldbe a lot stronger. Only a mug pays a 50% deposit before work starts, 10-15% yes. But only pikey builders can't afford the materials - not that they have to pay for them up front either. And if a builder can get a line of credit with a builder's merchant avoid them like the plague.

[Andy Hall]

Do you mean "can"?

[fred]

In article , Brian Sharrock writes

There is no mention in any of the articles I have read of this being a planning issue. There are many quotes however from council spokespersons describing that, "Council tenants are allowed to make improvements to their home" and that, "a private agreement has gone wrong". If there was some planning issue, I would have expected the council to play it large.

That is certainly the position stated by the builder and not contradicted by the council's statements.

The spokesperson's statement that Council tenants are allowed to make improvements to their home implies that they have not had any issue with the building work.