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Advance payments

Posted by Sarah Pellant, on Mon 03 Oct 2016 06:37pm

I have had one of your tradesmen round to view the work required so that he can prepare a quote, for fencing and gates, and asked about payment I.e. cheque on completion. He said that he normally has 50% paid in advance, so that he can buy materials, by bank transfer. Is this standard/normal practice? I've only ever paid on completion/receipt in the past.

Dalton Thompson

Tue 04 Oct 2016 08:57am

Hi Sarah, We cover this in our homeowner checklist which we encourage all homeowners to read and follow (ratedpeople(dot)com/c/homeowner-checklist). A deposit should always be documented with a detailed invoice and as a rough guide, it should be less than 20% of the overall job price but enough to cover the tradesperson’s tools, materials and travel costs. I hope this helps. Thanks, Natalie Ask an expert team

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BRYAN Dimmick

Mon 03 Oct 2016 07:19pm

Hi Advanced payments should not be something you have to agree to. If the job is costly and thousands then a materials deposit can be requested by a tradesman but this is still only on agreement. To my knowledge the solar PV industry is the only industry where a minimum 15% deposit must ne paid in advance. I recommend you get additional quotations and if you cannot find anybody else ask to company to carry out some work first before paying anything upfront. Once you build up some mutual trust they may well complete all works first,or yourself happy to pay in advance. Brian BCD Roofing.

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