Need Help With Contractor Contracts
please help!
i am starting my first rehab project, and need some direction for where to get some rough contracts that i can customize for the stages of my job. any ideas or references? what should i include in them?
eric
You could try Office Max or Office Depot. They have contracts and they also come with a downloadable version of it, so you can customize it to fit your needs.
Good luck!
WIth whatever you decide to do, make sure sure your contract is complete and covers anything you can think of. No offence to contractors but if you know contractors, most of them will end up screwing you somewhere down the line. Either not finishing a job, not doing the job right, taking for ever to complete the job, charging way to much (hiden fees), and just doing anything they can to get the upper hand. And make sure you get a lien waiver signed when work is complete. I have done a handfull of rehabs and I have tried using the cheap guys, the expensive guys and the in-between priced guys and they all have negatives and posotives. You need to try numerous contractors until you find one you know you can trust and count on.
Good luck and have fun with it...
You can use a generic subcontract and customize it. Be sure to use one for each trade that is required. Important conditions: Stipulate a start and finish date, establish progress payments made after inspections, stipulate a retention on each payment, final payment is based on your final walk-thru inspection, written approvals from governing agencies, appliance warrantees, etc. Do not give a deposit. You should be able to avoid this. Also, you want a certificate of insurance from the contractor/s before they begin work.
Hope this helps.
I use a book that is called 301Legal Forms & Agreements. It has step by step contractor contracts in there and many other valueable contracts. I have noticed most places like Lowes and Home Depot are selling one contract at a time. You can get this book on line at amazon or ebay for around 14.95
Lori
[addsig]
Quote:
On 2004-02-16 11:55, jakluver wrote:
WIth whatever you decide to do, make sure sure your contract is complete and covers anything you can think of. No offence to contractors but if you know contractors, most of them will end up screwing you somewhere down the line. Either not finishing a job, not doing the job right, taking for ever to complete the job, charging way to much (hiden fees), and just doing anything they can to get the upper hand. And make sure you get a lien waiver signed when work is complete. I have done a handfull of rehabs and I have tried using the cheap guys, the expensive guys and the in-between priced guys and they all have negatives and posotives. You need to try numerous contractors until you find one you know you can trust and count on.
Good luck and have fun with it...
Wow, sounds like you need to find better contractors if you've had that many problems in dealing with them. Sorry to hear you've had bad luck, but remember there are good ones out there.....
I would use a local real estate lawyer that specializes in this. Pay the firat time so you don't get burned. Remember you pay what you get for. Nothing in life is for free. Good luck
Alex... good point.
I'm a licensed contractor in California and Oergon. We are regulated by the Contractors State License Board (CSLB) and the Construction Contractors Board (CCB), both divisions of departments of consumer affiars. There are very clear guidlines what has to be in a home improvement contract. In both states you can get phamphlets or look online to understand what is needed for a legal contract. I don't know about your state but I would start my education there.
In the end, a contract is only a piece of paper... it's the people behind the deal that matters. I have great contracts, but if push comes to shove, both sides are already screwed. I can't tell you how many times I have been burned buy a customer that didn't want to perform on their part of the deal. I usually do what ever I have to do to keep my end, even if I end up paying, because my reputation is all I have to market. Even if you end up in court and win... you have lost. Even when I bid a set of plans with boilerplate AIA documents, if it is more than $20K, those AIA contracts documents go to my lawyer. I have gone to the Builders Book Source and the library to come up with a set of really simple templates that live in the contract forms file on my computer. These are for small jobs and subcontractors. I use the templates to fill in the specifics of the scope of work. Who, what, where, start date, completion date, material specifications, labor instructions (scope of the work) and down payment and progress payment amounts and what line items they are for in the scope. If that is not illustrated clearly, then all the boilerplate, small print and legal mumbo jumbo will not hold up. Again, my lawyer helped me make these simple and functional.