Avoiding unpleasant surprises when hiring help
Home renovators know this well: if you have ever sought help to paint your house, do your floors or some other house-related maintenance work, there are some things that are important to be aware of. For these things, you can be as formal or informal as you like: you may think it’s unnecessary to draw up a formal contract with a lawyer, but don’t hesitate to draw up a handwritten one, with signatures covering the following items:
Description of what is to be done
Simple enough, this can be a short list of what you are expecting the person you have hired to do. If you use list form, make sure it has sufficient details such as:
- paint all bathroom walls with two coats of paint + primer
- paint baseboards and all trimming
to avoid being surprised when your painter only paints with one coat of paint and expects to receive the payment agreed to.
Which brings me to what is easily the thorniest issue in informal contracts…
Payment
I cannot stress enough the importance of making sure that both parties are aware of how much will be paid and what this payment will cover. This is why a detailed list of what needs to be done is so important. Know what you will be getting for your money, and what is considered extra. This is an important thing to put into the contract.
Timeline
When your house is all out of sorts with people tramping through it, knocking down walls or painting, you should know how long you will have to hear that shrill drill going for. A firm end date is very important to negotiate and this should be in the contract. Will there be any penalty if work runs behind schedule? That is up to you to decide with the person you will be dealing with.
Even if you’re told your house will be worked on 7 hours a day, you need to find out when the person/crew will arrive and when he/she/they will leave. Don’t assume they will work from 9-5, ask!
What preparations are you expected to do/make?
Will the person painting your home move the furniture or are you expected to? What happens if something breaks or goes missing while this work is going on? Who is responsible, and what is he or she responsible for? It goes without saying that this should be spelled out somewhere in your contract.
Once all this is documented, get out your pens, sign and date it, and provide copies for each of you. Put it in a safe place with the hope that you’ll never have to consult it.
contractors, hired help, home renovation
October 4th, 2007 at 8:51 pm
Ugh, home renovations never go well. They are never on schedule, there is always some absurd part that needs to be ordered, and it is NEVER DONE ON TIME.
I say, to add to what you’ve got, you’ve got to accept the fact that it will probably take longer than you anticipate. Have a date that the work should be done; expect it to go a few days longer (For a paint job. For some sort of rennovation, addition, or big redecoration? Longer) and insist that it is done by say, a week after it is done.
Of course, if you go the route of insisting that they be out of your house on Day X?
Be prepared to finish the job yourself.
Which is why, of course, I never renovate anything. (The passive person’s way out! LOL)