Do you pay your tradesmen upfront?

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Do you pay your tradesmen upfront? We found an electrician we like but he’s asking for 50% upfront (£3500) which I think is quite a lot.

the other trades we’ve employed so far (plumber, Gad engineer, repointing) have been pay on completion. I was a bit surprised when he asked for 50% upfront. I worry that it’s a sign the business has cash flow problems.

We’re doing a house right now and have found a mix.
Windows- half when ordering, half when fitted.
Plumber (completely new central heating system) half deposit (which mostly will have gone on pipes/boiler/radiators I imagine) and half when finished.
Painter decorator- nothing up front. It’s a long job so probably will pay something in the middle once some rooms are completed.
Builder who is doing some bits on a day rate- nothing up front £250 per day plus materials when done.

never - its a massive red flag they have cash flow problems. Good tradesman buy materials on account, so should not need cash up front. If they want part payment only ever agree to pay something say half (or quarter) way through on condition specific things have been finished.

I used ‘tradespeople’ but every tradesperson I used it with gave me a funny look

I would agree with pp, we have had plumbing & electrical work done recently, never, ever paid upfront. We pay immediately on invoice once the work is completed.

Depends what the job is. If it's a big job, I'd expect payment intervals. But I'd want to see work being done before I coughed up anything.

so true. Thanks for calling it out. Sorry you’ve had problems with it in the industry. I’m a railway civil engineer. You get a real mix- some who wish it was the 70s and they could say what they like and others who really welcome the change.

Materials up front, and a proportional percentage each day or week depending on the length of the job.

Also, depending on the job hold back a snagging percentage or the final payment for am agreed time.

I've had some total cowboys, almost impossible to get back to fix snags once they've got their money.

My garden is currently being done. Fencing, gate, grass, landscaping etc. I paid a 40% deposit for materials.

He'd be fucked if he forked out for the materials then I pulled the plug. He's one man, hiring others to help him with specific skillsets depending on the job he's doing. He's not going to have a massive buffer of cash in the bank. We'll do the same for our bathroom refurb on a few months.

If you want a company with lots of money in the bank, you need to approach a bigger company for the work and you'll almost certainly pay more.

@RedCarsGoFaster thats a good point. I’m really unsure about how to know which are ‘big’ companies that are reasonable to expect to have money in the bank

Look at companies on Companies House for one. You can then see the scale of their business through their accounts in there if they've been registered for a few years.

Big names in your local area will advertise on vans, hoardings, local papers etc.

For the smaller companies - Facebook, local ads, mentions on local Fb pages - do they have much of a presence? Are they recommended online by people in your area?

Also how much money are you talking? £250 for a £500 job or £2.5k for a £5k job? That is a huge difference in expecting him to pay up front for you.

Is he registered with a reputable trade association like NAPIT or the NICEIC?

My husband owning his town trade business he usually asks for 25% upfront to cover materials and labour etc additional half way and then upon completion.

Only if it's needed to cover the cost of materials - and then only if the materials are delivered to me rather than the tradesman/woman

I have a nightmare builder at the moment (have a whole thread about it) and he has consistently demanded money up front for work. I should have ditched him ages ago but his crew have done a good job so far and I’m desperate to get our renovations completed. He clearly has massive cash flow problems hence constantly chasing money. The work he is doing is relatively low cost (thousands of pounds but not huge in comparison to others) so if he did disappear we’d be out of pocket but not at bankruptcy levels. A lesson learned and I’ll carefully vet any future builders. He was recommended though.

@Eastie77Returns rightly so he should ask for money upfront! It's his lively hood.

@RedCarsGoFaster literally knocked the nail on the head!

@TommyJones wrong if they are just starting out and don't have accounts to use for credit then they should ask for deposit upfront. It's the only way self employed people can build their reputation and job portfolio. Only if the job is big I would say. And if the client isn't comfortable in paying a deposit then they should buy the materials for the job that they won't done.

How long is the job going to take?

If it is a 2 day job then I can understand he needs the money for materials however the most I've paid was 25% up front.

I then paid in stages paying the last 25% on the completion of the work.

This has meant that at the beginning of the second week I have given them more money to buy materials.

Saying that most of the work I've had done has been under £1000 so I pay on immediate completion of the job. Though one plumber did do a proper invoice so I couldn't pay him until 2 weeks afterwards, which actually annoyed me.

@Mum2two2022 you might want to take a look at my other thread. I’ve worked with many tradespeople and understand there are legitimate reasons for requesting money up front. The builder I’m dealing with now doesn’t fall into that category.

I have received aggressive messages from him at 3am demanding money for jobs he is not starting anytime soon and that do not require materials to be purchased up front. This is because, by his own admission, he has a cash flow problem. He was meant to install a kitchen in August and called me last week demanding the money for that job now. When I refused he said he needs the money to pay his crew for other work, he is currently juggling multiple projects and is out of his depth. Needless to say I have found another fitter.

I recently gave him £4.5k in cash (he won’t accept bank transfers) for work that was still partially unfinished. Two days later he was raging that he is £1.5k out of pocket as the wages he had to pay out totalled £6k. He has left jobs half completed at my house and taken his crew to work on other houses. They have told me he consistently cuts corners.

Your DH may be a good tradesman but please take off the rose coloured glasses. There are some awful ones out there and OP is correct to be wary.

@Eastie77Returns I get where your coming from but firstly anyone who wants cash and doesn't provide an invoice etc would scream alarm bells to me anyway. I think it's about having a bit of common sense, there are a lot of cow boys out there and from your post you just posted on here that situation is one of them.

There is a huge huge different regarding asking for a deposit and being legit and asking to be paid in cash and not to a business bank account...

Oh I agree, I have been extremely naive. First time dealing with a house renovation and I would do such much differently if I had this time again. We have guys in fitting flooring at the moment and the difference between them and the builder is like night and day. They provide itemised invoices, keep me informed of what is happening and are so professional. Requested a deposit but fully explained the material it was for. So I know there are reliable trades out there.

The builder was recommended to me by both of my new neighbours and their houses look great but I will never work with someone like him again, the stress has aged me!

@Eastie77Returns yeah I bet! Some people most definitely try and pull your leg!