Hi, As most responders have said, a small deposit (20-30%) is not unusual for larger jobs. However it depends on the trade, some types of trade will carry your parts as standard, whereas some are ordered in specifically. Personally, for larger jobs involving parts that I have to order, and do not usually carry, I would request a small deposit. Other than that, you shouldn't expect to pay large deposits. Best regards, Phil
If you have agreed on the works I always ask for materials money upfront or get customer to pay direct to one of my suppliers and the labour on completion which I think this is only fair wen being a sole trader that don't do credit accounts hope this helps . Kind regards Mike
I never ask as I think the company should have the bank flow, but when you do big jobs for big money sometimes it’s worrying laying out all that money. Thanks dan
Hi Paul Tough one this. It depends on two things in my opinion. 1: The cost of the job, if it's under £1000 the tradesmen should be prepared to have funds to commence works, if they didn't you'd have to question their business. 2: Research, what's there ratings like? Google the company, find out any bad reviews etc.. Although I rarely ask myself, it's quite common to ask for material costs, but do your research first! The quality of my work and customer relations means I rarely have any problems Cheers Paul
Yes, we take 50% deposit to offset client risk and help offload material cost.
Dear Paul, Coming from a tradesman’s point of view, paying a deposit could be very helpful. It could cover the initial cost of materials and labour to start the job, which can be quite significant on a bigger job. Obviously be careful who you pay to and when. We all heard about disappearing tradesmans, who recieved deposit and then never showed up. Make sure that there is a written agreement in place before sending any money and check your choosen tradesperson as throughly as possible. Hope this helps! Andrew
It is fairly common to take a deposit up front, to give you an example the current job I am on has a up front materials cost to myself of £4000, once the materials are ordered if the job does not proceed then I face a restocking charge of up to 25% of the order. As most materials need to be ordered in advance then a deposit covers this potential loss. I would only do this on a larger job were my exposure is over £500. It does happen the people change their minds on what they want done, and have had a job moved on a Friday evening that was due to start on the Monday morning, I happily moved the job to my next available slot which was 3 weeks latter, and the evening before I was due to fit the bespoke unit I had made the client wanted to change the door design. I had not taken a deposit on this job and decided to cut my losses of around £700, but the materials cost was less than £250 the rest being labour. You should look at the job you are having done and the cost of materials and if you don’t think that it is reasonable to cover part of this then use someone that will cover cost of the job until completed. If however this is a big job it will limit the people that will be able to afford to take the job on.
Hi Paul I personally would never ask for any money until the work is completed and the customer is happy. The only exception to this would be a big ongoing job I would ask for bits after work has been completed if it's going to keep going for a few months such as renovations . But never before any work has been done. If lots of materials are required and I am purchasing sometimes I will ask the customer to pay the merchants directly but on the whole I place on my account and take payment on completion. My advice would be don't hand over any money until the work is complete and that your satisfied. As reputable tradesmen wouldn't expect any money before they have completed the work. Hope this helps Damien
Nick shares his story of finding local tradespeople in his new area.
