Making an Agreement

As soon as you've made up your mind as to which contractor you want to use, phone them up and confirm the following:

• start date and estimated completion date
• price and what it includes and excludes
• how payment will be staged, with an agreement to hold back between 5% and 10% until three months after the completion of the job in case of unfinished work, or faulty workmanship that is not immediately apparent.
• any disruption that would require you to vacate the property, even for a night
• number of workers on site
• working hours
• procedures for changing the brief, the final price, or the completion date - unless changes are very minor, they should be put in writing

Put everything you agree into writing and send two copies of the letter to the contractor. Ask them to sign and return one copy. This is effectively a contract between the two of you. It will prove a valuable document should serious problems arise.

Once the agreement has been signed, it's courteous to notify the other contractors who supplied quotes, especially if it was a difficult decision, or was taken because of timing rather than price. It's worth staying on good terms, just in case your chosen contractor lets you down.