Roofer wants 50% money upfront

To give a trades view...DH has been a roofer with his own business for 15 years. This year he's starting asking for deposits of 30% on the advice of his trade association. This is due to them seeing an increasing number of customers who are inventing reasons not to pay once the work is complete. I'm not talking shoddy work, these are cases that have been taken to court and the tradesperson has won.

Our association has been going for over 40 years and said they've never seen anything like it in terms of difficult, non-paying customers.

He provides all customers with a deposit insurance (paid for by him at a cost of £15 per job) for their peace of mind.

Do your due diligence on the company. Only pay it by bank transfer into a business account. The roofer should have provided the information about the deposit, in writing. Along with a written quotation, notice of right to cancel, public liability insurance, complaints procedure, T&Cs.

If you didn't get the above, I'd keep looking.

This isn’t true.
many respectable small firms requires some funds ahead of work being done .
usually I want to see an itemised bill that explains the costs of material and labour.
and based on that I will pay a proportion. .

No I wouldn’t.

we had a payment plan with our builders where we paid a bit in increments eg 10% here then 15% more once this was done

Think that's what happened to us😢. No point in small claims, he now says he has had a nervous breakdown and isn't trading. So even when we would win the case, we wouldn't get the money back.

We had our roof done last year, didn’t pay anything up front.

Few years ago we had the kitchen done, cost about £11k .. it’s a small kitchen but lots needed doing, didn’t pay a penny it was all done, installed and working. Builder took care of eveything, he was fantastic.

Equally, I have had loads of work done on my house from a new kitchen, bathroom, garden work, windows and electrical work and all but one asked for between 30 and 50% up front. It really isn't unusual.

Its normal (possibly depending on where you live!) Lots of sole traders cannot afford to provide their customers with a new roof and keep a roof over their own DC's head if a customer decides not to pay at the end.

I recently paid 25%, you could probably negotiate on a deposit but finding a decent roofer is hard so sometimes it's a choice of getting it done or not. Depends how likely you would be to find an alternative, I contacted a dozen and only one interested but it's a smaller job. I think with roofing, given the risks of working at height etc that some assurance like a deposit that the customer will pay up is sensible

We've part paid in advance tradesmen with their own small business. But check references if you can get any.

We had an electrician years ago we paid in installments, though my DH foolishly paid the last payment when there was a small job left to do. He didn't come back , but DH didn't chase him either, said he'd do it himself.

I used to work for a well known builders supply company, to attract tradespeople they would allow them to apply for what they called a 'trade card', in this way they would be able to buy building supplies on credit (same as a store card really) however, if they didn't make regular payments their account would be stopped, their way round it was to ask a new customer give money 'up front' they would then use this to settle their outstanding debts before putting the new customers' supplies on credit, and so on with the next customer, this system worked well until they defaulted on their payments (which often happened) at which point their account would be stopped, so effectively the 'up front payment' would be swallowed up and there was nothing for the customers goods. Sorry for the long winded post but hate to see this happening.

I hope you obtained several quotes before deciding who to give the job to.

Same. Roofer arranged scaffolding and skip and paid for both directly, presumably when he got paid.

I've never paid anything upfront in 30 years of having work done with the exception of a jobbing builder who was doing our patio as a job on the side, so didn't have a trade account anywhere. We gave him the money for the paving slabs etc that he ordered. But they were delivered here and we knew where he lived and we're in a small village, so minimal risk.
Around here, it's more usual to have to chase up the bill after the work has been done as you're worried it's gone astray!

Don't part with 50% unless you can pay by credit card. If you can't pay roofer by card can you pay the supplier direct for materials needed and make sure they're delivered to you. No way I'd pay for labour up front.

Trading Standards Department of your Council give advice on this I think. In general - no its a bad idea.

I’ve done 20 odd renovations. I have never ever paid anything upfront, unless it’s been repeated work from a trusted tradesman. Anyone in the game will have 30 day supplier accounts, so if they don’t, be very, very wary.

The roofing firm we used didn't ask for anything upfront, not even for scaffolding or skip.

I work for a trades person (not roofing).

We ask for a 50% upfront payment. It's to buy the materials. The remaining 50% is paid on completion.

There is trust on both sides.

The 50% payment covers the cost of the materials needed. Once they have been fitted they are classed as fixtures and are very difficult to remove again even if the balance payment isn't paid. The second hand value would also be less than what was paid.

The tradesperson is trusting the customer to pay the balance. The customer is trusting the tradesperson to complete the work as agreed.

The 50% deposit also confirms the booking by both parties. No one wants a last minute cancellation when they've set aside a week to do that job and potentially declined other work.

Surely you've met the person, liked them and checked some reviews, credentials etc.

We've never had someone not pay the 50% upfront. If they refused to pay we would decline the job. We've also never not completed the work to a good standard and have therefore never had a problem with a customer paying the balance on completion.

But no deposit, means no materials and therefore no booking.

We had our roof replaced recently. It was done by a small local business. They gave us a written quote and we didn't pay anything upfront.

When we had our roof replaced, we paid in 3 or 4 instalments, I think. First was when the scaffolding went up. Final payment on completion with 1 or maybe 2 interim payments in-between. We had a similar arrangement for having kitchen and bathroom done.

Work in this industry. Staged payments are very normal, particularly on any job which requires high value materials.

However, lots of rogue operators about in the roofing sector, so if you have any doubts or concerns about the firm then be cautious.

Likewise, make sure you ask for an invoice detailing exactly what work will be carried out, and obtain a payment receipt. Any good tradesperson should freely provide the former upfront.

Tell him you will pay the supplier direct for materials when you see the invoice

Nothing upfront but 50% when the materials were delivered prior to the work being done.

Stage payments entirely appropriate. 50% upfront is surprising! His business entity could shutter and phoenix the next day though you can't easily relocate your home (I know builders have to chase payments). If you want to go ahead with this for some reason such as he is the only tradesman in the world then insist on talking to his last ten clients to see his reliability, do a credit check on him and his business, see his latest business accounts and business and personal bank accounts and have a convincing explanation why he can't get an account from a supplier for materials and even then I wouldn't. Does he pay his workers in advance?

My family member is a tradesperson and never takes an upfront payment. However, over 50% of the time when he gets to the end people get funny about paying, tell him they're 'going on holiday', 'the bank is closed', 'my online banking won't work' 🙄 He's way too trusting and gets walked over constantly. I can see it from both sides but I think this tradesperson is in the right. Can you compromise on a smaller amount?