Dealing with Contractors -- Some Advice to Heed
Well, I have my contract from the construction company. Since I work in a field that deals with contracts some times, I asked a colleague to look at the contract and offer some guidance. Remember the contractor writes the contract to protect themselves, but not the owner. You have to protect yourself. And we added the following clauses:1. Contractor shall furnish client with a copy of all permits and regulatory approvals obtained for this project. The original contract just said they would obtain them -- but I wanted proof of them being obtained.
2. Owner harmless for the payment of same or any such claims against Owner. Contractor shall provide client copies of proof of all insurance. The original just said that the company had insurance - but I wanted wanted proof for my own sake.
3. LICENSES. Contractor is licenesde and bonded to perform all work in this contract in Fairfax County in the Commonwealth of Virgiania. License # ________________ expires _____________. No license information was even provided in the original.
12. WORK SCHEDULE. Contract agrees that time is of the essence and shall begin work no later than ________ and finish work no later than ________. If contractor is unable to perform work specificed in this contract within the time frame agreed to in this contract, then, client shall have the right to have all unfinished work performed by another contractor and shall forward all charges to complete work to this contractor for full payment within less than ninety days after submission of charges. No schedule information was even provided in the original.
We also are going back and forth over the spec sheet to attach. I want to be sure that I know exactly what is being included in the contract and what is not. This should minimize surprises down the road.
Tomorrow, I plan to finalize both the kitchen contract and the contractor contract. So, it looks like I will be writing checks in excess of $20,000. OH MY GOODNESS! That is a pretty scary amount of money. Keep your fingers crossed for me -- this is going to be one tight squeeze for me to pay for it all.
posted by Corona Red @ 10:36 AM
6 Comments:
sounds like you have all your bases covered, good job you know your stuff, i would be clueless...
hope it all goes to plan for you...
:0)
Definitely provide details specs on it.
It's a lot of money but think how worth it will be in the end!
Fingers crossed!
Good luck! :)
That is a lot of money - you have been so awfully busy with all of this home improvement stuff, I don't know how you stand it. Of course, it will be so worth it in the end, if you don't go crazy first. But it sounds like you're taking the smart way - the schedule seems doubly important to me since these things often drag on and on forever. Good luck, and try not to choke on your tongue when you write that cheque.
yeah, but how awesome is the new kitchen going to be!!! It is so worth it.
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