When do you pay builders?

[ElleDubloo]

We're getting a new bathroom installed at the moment. But I was just wondering in a more general way... When do you tend to pay your builders?

Do you tend to pay them in full before they do the job? Or half before, half after? Or different proportions? I've also heard of people reserving approx 10% of the full payment for 2 weeks after the job is finished, so you can ask them to come and fix any minor bugs you discover after you start using it?

Depends what they are doing. If they have costs to start with (e.g. buying the bathroom suite / tiles / adhesive whatever) then its reasonable for them to ask for part of the payment upfront. There should always been a payment at the end of the work, so you still have some leverage to get them to finish it / take care of any snags. Discuss it with the buider and ask if he wants stage payments, just agree it beforehand so you both know where you are upto / what is expected.

It depends what the builder wants to do, sometimes they ask for staggered payments if it is going to take a few months to complete the work.

For a bathroom though I would expect to pay in full once they have finished up. IMO I don't think you can hold back 10% in case something goes wrong in the few weeks afterwards. Any reputable company will come back and fix faults without withholding money from them.

When the builder asks for instalment payments. He suggested a 5% retention. But we have a trusted builder.

They will try to manipulate the stage payments so that you pay a greater proportion of the money for a smaller proportion of the work.

Always retain 10% for a month after the work had been completed and you have lived with it and discovered most of the defects, and they have been put right, and you have lived with it for long enough to know that the fix is satisfactory.

This will not be the same as the date the builder says it is all finished.

You must agree the stage payments at the very start when you agree to the project so that both parties are happy.
Our main work is bathroom installations and what is standard for us - if we are supply and fitting everything - is:
The work will take 2 weeks,
40% in advance,
Then perhaps a stage payment.
Balance in full on completion: Bank transfer within a few days or debit card on last day (or cheque on last day) is usual.

Our legal duties are to come back and rectify or replace faulty items for years in to the future under consumer law. So if you go with a reputable company you are protected.
I've never heard of people with holding 5% retention on jobs of this size.

What may happen is for some unexpected reason the job cannot be 100% finished on time. EG perhaps you have ordered some unique product, it arrives broken or even gets broke when work is in progress AND there is a long time for the items to be replaced. I know we had to wait about 8 weeks for tiles shipped from Italy once. Then obviously, you don't pay in full but it is reasonable to pay for what has been done.

Thanks for all the helpful posts. We're new property owners so we haven't dealt with builders much before.

Please don't do what DH has just done and pay out 75% of the fee when only 50% of the work has been done! And definitely retain a little so you have some leverage for the inevitable "snag list".

and get everything in back and white with no verbal agreements.