staged payments

[Vir Campestris]

What's the usual schedule on a sub-10k job?

The builder has just dropped a schedule on us, and I'm not happy with it. It was not agreed in advance.

Andy

[yendor]

You need to have some form of contract written done in place, with when payments will be made. I done mine myself, and made sure I had never paid more than the work done at the time was worth.

Payment when foundations poured. Payment when Timber kit completed. Payment when blockwork completed. Payment when First fix completed. Payment when roof tiled. Payment when Windows Installed.

I never paid anything upfront. If the builder doesn't have the cashflow to buy materials first, look elsewhere.

[Andrew Gabriel]

For those items requiring BCO inspection (such as foundations), it should be after approval, not after completion, and you should hook a payment to each of these inspections.

My parents paid an architect to draw up the contract stating when partial payments were due and to approve the partial payments for other stages. It you're not using an architect, you could use a building surveyor for this. But this was for something over 40k.

The last 10% was due 6 months after completion, to allow for snagging fixes.

Builder should be able to buy on 30 days credit anyway, or they don't have any credibility with their suppliers either.

Builder was perfectly happy with this, and probably used to it as he was one of several the architect recommended.

[Peter Parry]

If you don't have a written contract you need one quickly. The standard one would be the Joint Contracts Tribunal "Building Contract for a home owner/occupier who has not appointed a consultant to oversee the work" You can find a copy at

The payment schedule is whatever you and the builder decide but should be tied to measurable milestones such as foundations installed and inspected. The builder should be familiar with the JCT contract. Normally 5% of the contract value should be withheld at the end for a period of three months to ensure any small defects discovered after work is complete are remedied.

[tony sayer]

And do psych yourself up for the invariable disputes that will happen, not known a project to go "just so" yet;!...

If you are unhappy with something raise the issue there and then, don't wait for it to become a bigger one..

[tim......]

six tranches for a 10K job sounds like three too many to me

tim