How to do a contract with builder

J

jessie175

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Hi all,

I am looking for advice on how to draw up a contract with a builder for rennovation work. We are looking to get quotes from a couple of builders.

The plan is to detail the work required in each room and ask the builders to cost each job and list materials separtely. Is this the way to do this or should we ask them to cost entire job?

Then, regarding payment, should we do phased payments at start middle end? Should this be in the contract?

I am also concerned about how long the project should take. If there is not much work out there that whoever takes the job will just drag it out until something else comes up, or not put enough people on the job. This may not be the case but how do you prevent this, can you put something in the contract regarding penalities if the job runs over schedule (not due to unforseen problems with the house)?

Any advice would be helpful, thanks
 
You might want to consider getting an architect / quantity surveyor / building engineer to draft a plan, a schedule of works and materials and a contract for you.

It won't be cheap, but if you want something professional to measure progress, and to check the reality of builders' proposals against, I can't think of another option.

With regard to payment, I believe you will need to discuss this with each potential contractor and balance their needs against your own budget and expectations.

From my own experiences, try to arrange payment at very specific mile-stones for each discrete piece of work as it finishes, e.g. room by room. This may not be possible if there are works that cross room boundaries e.g. re-wiring, central heating, plumbing, etc.
 
mathepac said:
You might want to consider getting an architect / quantity surveyor / building engineer to draft a plan, a schedule of works and materials and a contract for you.

It won't be cheap, but if you want something professional to measure progress, and to check the reality of builders' proposals against, I can't think of another option.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your advice.

The work involved could be called modernisation/rennovation work i.e. rewiring, plumbing, underfloor heating, new bathrooms and kitchen, knock through a few walls to make kitchen/diner, new windows, insulating, replastering and painting.

While it would be nice to hand over responsibility of contracts and overseeing to an architect or engineer, we don't have the budget for this and will therefore have to do contracts ourselves.
 
WHATEVER YOU DO, make it clear you're going keep a good wedge back until snags have been dealt with. (I'd say 20%).

In a builder baulks at this proposal, it might well tell you all you need to know about his attitide to snag lists.

In my case, I held some back but not enough to keep him hungry. Net result, the snags remain two years after moving back.
 
The difficulty you have is valuing the work for the stage payments. That is what the benefit of a QS would be - if the job is costing tens of thousands it might be worth considering. A QS can be much cheaper than the likes of an architect. A good QS might be able to assist you on what your contract should cover (eg. key milestones and valuing such milestones) - you may need to agree some potential variations upfront so as to avoid making unscheduled changes during building works (generally v. costly).

I doubt very much that anyone could get a 20% retention for snags especially for bigger jobs, but if you don't ask...

If you can get most of the payments backended that would be great (and may be possible if job is a couple of weeks, and builder anxious for work); however, if it's a longer job your builder will generally try and get fixed amount every week or so and may try and delink actual progress of works and original quote - so effectively you would be on a time and materials contract. So you should tackle this issue early in discussions with your builder and ensure whatever contract you draw up clearly states that contract is fixed price.

You could use precedent building agreements available from engineers (EI) or architects (RIAI) association
 
Building on what's been discussed here, like Jessie, me and the other half are refurbishing our house. The builder's due to start in the next couple of weeks. While its a big job for us (we're spending over 100k) all the builders tell us its a smallish job so we're using a standard contract available from the RIAI, as Askar suggested.

The thing is the contract is between the contractor and an "employer", should we be defined as such? Put another way, has the builder given us the right form of contract. The contents seem to be very much what we wanted covered, provisions for overruns etc etc. But in the worst case scenario; where things go pear shaped and we have to rely on the contract, I'm worried that the fact that the parties to the contract aren't properly defined would render it invalid.

Thanks in advance
 
Streamer,

We are actually only getting around to contracting a builder now, due to delays in closing.

I had a look at the RIAI website, do you have to be a member to get a contract template?

Thanks
 
I'm a builder that will tell you that a project worth 110k should not be listed as a simple contract,regardless of where you reside. We are located in Minnesota and will tell all our customers not to do this. Also make sure that your contractor utilizes Mechanics liens to prove payment to suppliers and other sub contractor.
The simplest of jobs can become the most burdensome.
 
BuilderOne said:
I'm a builder that will tell you that a project worth 110k should not be listed as a simple contract,regardless of where you reside. We are located in Minnesota and will tell all our customers not to do this. Also make sure that your contractor utilizes Mechanics liens to prove payment to suppliers and other sub contractor.
The simplest of jobs can become the most burdensome.
Click to expand...

Hi BuilderOne, welcome to AAM. Note AAM is an Irish site, and so "Mechanics liens" do not apply here.
Leo
 
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