Re: Are These Contract Clauses Reasonable??
You wanted me to take a look at your posting on the contract issues.
Are there any other pool contractors in your area other than those two? The reason I ask - is because when we started looking at pool builders we found six that were either recommended by someone or had a good reputation. Then we called all of them - only four returned our calls.
We set-up appoinmentments with each of them and then told them what we wanted in a pool and waited to see what each of them recommeneded and why. We were able to guage the ability of each builder at this point. Then we got prices - it was very clear at this point that two of the remaining builders did not want to install our pool - one was about $20K higher than everyone else and the other didn't want to quote "custom" items - just wanted to do "standard" pools.
Now we were down to two - one was priced at 48K and the other at 52K for the same scope of work - then we started looking at the contracts. Here are some "red" flags we found that you should avoid.
- Do not put more than 10% down for them to start pulling permits. Our pool builder actually only required 10% of the pool price (without all the extras) to pull the permit.
- Also, you shouldn't pay them completely before they are complete to your satisfaction. One of the builders had the last payment of 10% due before start-up. This was unacceptable. The builder we chose has the last 10% upon final acceptance, and we don't pay for the pavers or the screen enclosure at all until we are happy with those items.
- Beware of contractors that want progressive payments PRIOR to performing the work. The contract should say 20% AFTER the dig is complete (not just BEFORE).
- My contract is standard with the "does not cover damage to sidewalks, bushes, irrigation systems, etc."
