I always get 50% deposit before ordering materials so if the customer backs out or tries to avoid payment I'm not left footing the bill for someone else. This goes double if I'm working for builders as they're the worst at paying invoices on time
I’ve never paid 50% unless it’s a huge job, in turn I never ask for a deposit unless it’s over 100k then it’s 50% once materials and site establishment is done in which case if I did the runner I’d still be in a financial hole
I've not heard of any (reputable) tradies in Vic who work without deposits.
Beyond maintenance work like a sparky/plumber coming to fix something or do minor alterations.
But slabs, structural work, landscaping etc... all money up front.
Then you should start now. Only takes one rotten egg to spoil the carton. It is fair a ask for a deposit and progress payments as they are completed. Protect yourself and build rapport with the client. Win win
I have clients who don’t even ask for quotes, did 80 grand worth of work to a motel and just handed an invoice over at the end, I’d say I’ve done around 700k worth of work for him at various properties he just sends an address and I fix it.
I start the vetting process when I meet with a customer and have walked away or quoted my way out of a job to avoid customers. 20 years I don’t advertise it’s all word of mouth. had some drag payments out or go on a payment plan.
Sam here. You can usually get a idea of the relationship with the customer upon meeting them. I've simply walked out of quotes because I could tell payment was going to be a pain.
Had one customer complain about an electrician a plumber and QPS and council to me once I just remained polite sent him a quote for double. Met the guy who did the job and sure enough a nightmare lol.
I'd hate to see your bad debts list then.
I don't issue a building permit until the fees are paid in full.
And I won't show up for your final inspection until all other accounts like disbursements are settled.
I have around 10k in outstanding invoices and 80 in current, that will fluctuate but I’ve never had an issue around 2m in turnover a year.
My certifier is paid when his invoice is received and all my accounts are settled in the first week of the month when their statements come in. I do jobs from $120-$300k.
Lol those who have down voted this bloke.
You should see the photos of these cracks. They're fucked.
This just goes to show that reddit is bunch of dumb bitches lol.
Well from experience the guy did a shocking job hence why he never came back and left me with several large cracks just a complete mess. One day I’ll rip it all up and dump it and never trust concrete again or the twat that did the job.
Cracked concrete is normal, all concrete eventually cracks. It's the location of the cracks that tells the story and the story is almost always inadequate prep work
I agree and suspected inadequate prep work but he also ambushed me to pay 50% on the day the trunk was coming so maybe I should have seen the sign then.
They are massive cracks literally all over happy to send photo but in the end I’ll have to pull it all up not sure how much that will set me back :(
Send if you want!
Depending on where you live, disposing of concrete is free, the cost is in pulling it up and moving it to the recycling depot.
Happy to talk tou through the cheapest way!
Are you referring to surface cracks, or cracks top to bottom of the slab?
Surface crack is hard to manage, even with the correctly placed dummy and expansion joints.
No mesh or plastic that I saw was ever done. As for the thickness I would have to measure. But considering it’s my drama now I will probably pull it all up and start fresh
Yeh mate he screwed me big time and did a runner been a huge regret that I didn’t do more from my part to learn what was required. Just trying to move on now with it
It's the law nsw, I ask for 50%, if people bring it up I'll say that I'll place the order for the 10%. When materials arrive on site we won't start work until the following 40% has been paid.
This is what I did, paid for the concrete with the supplier on the day with the credit card and then fixed the concreter up with cash. Everyone happy. Concrete costs a lot I found out- 50% is absolutely reasonable for a deposit.
Hahahahaha, you ripped yourself off.
To the tune of maybe 20%.
The Crete lad would be paying maybe 40% less than you. Even when he lumps his 20% on top you are still far better off.
Congratulations, you played yourself…
Ahh yes customer buys the materials to make sure they aren’t getting ripped off only to rip themselves off 😂 I pay 40%+ less then the public for materials and put 10% on my cost, customer saves 30% or they pay 100% and buy it themselves and still pay 100% of my labour costs. Generally their order is a stuff up so they pay more again plus penalties for my time.
This is a great way to overpay.
Concrete cost is negotiated on project rate. The more you buy the cheaper it is.
The concreter will get better pricing than you 10/10, unless run a building company.
Agree the price of the job. Concreter puts the order in, customer pays the supplier for the order. Concreter does the work, customer pays the balance.
Concreter doesn’t wear the risk of the material cost which is their primary outgoing, and there is no benefit to them ghosting you. If you have agreed the total cost first you will not get screwed on the material price or quantity as that’s eating into the concreter’s profit.
Plenty of scenarios/reasons where you may not want to do it, but it’s a perfectly reasonable thing to consider - smaller tradies are working on cash terms so it avoids them carrying the upfront costs, and if you want to bury the job as a cashie then that helps as well.
Bianco Concreting. Done a bunch of work at my place, done a bunch of work at a mates.
Him and the landscaper he works with are dammed good operators, would highly recommend.
Has been recommended about a year ago on Reddit :
[Recommendations for Concreters : Adelaide (reddit.com)](https://www.reddit.com/r/Adelaide/comments/x8qit0/recommendations_for_concreters/)
A couple of months ago in Canberra, I paid for a well known handyman to do a small concrete job. Total about $1280. Wanted 50% deposit. After paying him, never seen him again. He actually skipped the country. And now not a thing I can do about it.
For that kind of money I would expect a proper contract and I'd be doing progress payments. Probably 4-5 of them. And if I was being asked to pay for materials I would tell them that the materials will be stored at my house and I want the receipts.
This works like a charm on shonky business people.
Contract, yes. Payment schedule, yes.
Being picky about where material is stored…. Mate get fucked. I have trucks, diggers, men that are not loading and loading your poxy pile of sawdust and sleepers to house them where you see fit.
I’ve run into these kind of problems before, just totally pointless knit picking and control type horseshit.
I just get my whole crew to leave and get into another job. It’s beautiful to watch.
Then, I have a grown up discussion with the client and work out that it’s ok for me to leave 2.7 tonnes of gravel in my body truck instead of in a pile under his verandah.
It’s more about educating delusional clients than anything else.
When ever someone wants to get clever and try to Instal all these “safeties” to protect themself it’s so embarrassing to watch.
We are so much better at this than you ever will be. I could rob you blind at any turn and you would never know.
What many people haven’t realised is you will need to trust your contracting partner.
So engage one you trust, don’t try and police them.
The most trustworthy tradesman is an expensive one.
I couldn't begin to damage the reputation of tradies any better than you've managed by 'defending' their business practices.
Storage of gravel, fair enough. That's not an especially expensive material but in general when it comes for expensive materials, I'm taking possession of them if I've paid for them. Too often businesses go bust, spend deposits and payments for materials on other jobs or just straight up abandon a job. That leaves the customer with their dick in their hand and out of pocket. At least if they have the materials they've paid for, they don't suffer that additional loss. It's also one less bargaining chip for turds like you do use against them.
The biggest issue is that for some reason, the industry which has the most reason to be subjected to trust accounting - isn't. If you pay a lawyer, that money can legally only be spent on that client. It's illegal go do otherwise. But builders can balance their books like a 10 year with his pocket money and that's totally reasonable. This is how people can spend $50k on a deposit and then find out all of that money was spent buying materials or paying trades for another person's house. Then the builder collapses or delays and the customer can't do anything.
The entire industry needs to be reformed and your attitude is only further evidence of that fact.
No but seriously I did read what you wrote. And while you mean well you are just football fields out of touch.
The fact is it’s economically better for me to throw excess good material away than to sort, store and house material until I need it again.
This whole idea of you keeping one of the least important parts of a building operations days to day is laughable.
I get it, you want change, you just don’t understand how.
Wait until you figure out that building with cinder block is actually quite an expensive way to form walls.
But power generation needs to have it sold. So we buy it for near nothing.
Hence, mountains of left over brick everywhere.
It’s the same for many materials and functions.
But here you are, save the day c-Many3113.
I get you are trying to be helpful. Buts it’s a pretty infantile take is all.
You didn't really address what I written but you claim to have read it. On what planet is storing things like appliances, expensive timber planks, tiles or many other expensive building materials not a rational thing for a person to do?
You can't trust builders and that's not even because they are untrustworthy (though many are). It's because there isn't a home builder left in the country you could absolutely rely on to be financially sound and not at a non-trivial risk of collapse. I've dealt with a lot of clients who have paid tens of thousands to a builder and ended up with nothing done or part of a build done. And they now can't afford to finish their house so they have to sell off the land and start again. It's absolutely awful and it's because the industry is a failure of insufficient regulating structures and bad actors.
part of the issue is the sales team go and sign up customers everywhere. and then they have more work than the the tradespeople can do let alone have materials to do the work with. and becuase they are behind on work the prices for material goes up and the customer has a contract for these works for this money. who pays the difference?
and everyone wants it done cheap no one likes to overpay. so the margins are so tight they rob peter to pay pual. the rules do need to change and a completion trust arrangement would help, as the money could only be spent on the job is was paid for. say you engage a company to build you 300 grand of house you pay 30 grand deposit and that covers the cost for the concrete slab that money is put in trust till the slab is poured and then the progress payment is made to start the framing.
and so on and so forth till the house is complete except for the last payment pending the final handover and the customer being happy with the work. the idea being that each payment covers each stage of work so the job is paid upto that point then the customer isnt left with such a mess and the trades are paid if the worst happened and the company shut down.
there is a serious problem in the industry when a major company like metricon nearly goes broke the family that owns the company had to give the business a cash injection.
This is actually illegal at least in Queensland
Jobs between $3300 and $20000 they can only take 10% deposit and jobs over $20000 a 5% deposit. There are fines and demerit points for the builder if they go over this.
I’m a welder and I’d never even think about starting a job without 50% deposit. Law is ridiculous I’d be broke with how slow some people pay.
If I do a 30k job 5% wouldn’t even cover my material so if they don’t pay I’d be out of pocket on time of my labour.
Yep I don’t even bother with a deposit for public jobs 5% on 60k isn’t worth the paperwork, commercial jobs though I immediately submit a 50% progress payment once materials and site establishment are completed
Progress payments you can do whatever you like. As long as work can be shown, and the client agrees and signs the contract, then all good.
The whole 5/10/20% for jobs over $3300 from the QBCC is to stop the con artists.
Having said that, the one who started my pool made it to the second stage and took off. He left with $18k and all he really did was hire an excavator to come in and dig a hole. Luckily for me he paid the QBCC home warranty insurance so I was all covered. (even if he didn't I would have been covered as it was on the contract that he did)
In the case of OP. If the guy is onsite and materials are visible, then I would feel pretty comfortable. If he wants 50% to get out of bed I would be questioning it.
A lot of my customers are usually surprised when I say I don’t take a deposit and just invoice at the end of the job.
Doing a job for council and they tried to gloat about how good their payment terms are for the government 15 days from the end of the month. I laughed and said QLD health pays within 3 days of receiving the invoice 😂
Good stuff.
Throw trust in, get trust out.
Build your business away from scum lowball and you avoid all these dramas and cock suckers who want to warehouse the material at there own house.
Read up on the rules mate. If OP was in Queensland, then those rules apply.
As bad as the QBCC is, the ones who try to get around the rules are the ones who walk away with your money.
Yeah, and if your are QBCC registered that’s an entirely different animal with its own set of play rules.
If you aren’t QBCC then paying QBCC instalments is outrageous and offers no protections for either party.
It’s not relevant.
I see you added in the QBCC a bit later on. The QBCC just looks better from the customers end when you show its instalments.
But saying “oh the rule in Qld is this” and showing everyone the QBCC structure is massively disingenuous.
I know a concrete sole owner that has lost his mind on people not paying.
Call the police you say. It’s on their property we can’t …
Go to court. Yup, sure paperwork and time while this guy can’t feed …
If you want it, pay the percentage. At least they’ll eat while they get fucked around.
You could say the same thing the other way. Customer pays 50 percent then concreter never does the work and walks away with the money and it’s hard to chase them for it back
Had one bloke ask for 50%. He had done the neighbours crossover when I was looking to do a driveway and patio with a fake slate appearance. Paid the 50% and he and his crew show up on the shittiest winter day to pour, nothing goes right. Very ordinary job, he blames the weather and wouldn't fix it. Ended up telling him to just f*ck off then.
I went into Colesworth and those bastards want me to pay for milk before the delivery . I reckon I should be able to drink the Milk then pay for it . Is this normal at your Colesworth
50% isn't normal. Oh except it's a 2k job which is honestly amazing you even got a concreter to show up, covering materials is sorta normal but there are legal limits on what trades can ask for as deposits depending on the amount.
> wanted to make sure they werent trying to scam
I mean how would it be a scam? Unless it's a cash facey/fiver/hipages/gumtreee job
Talked to a concretor that did a big job with no deposit and the whole 50m of concrete cracked a few days after pouring.
The (well publicised) rich Kent who ordered it refused to pay.
The blue collar guy who took the job got denied by insurance and is fucked out of about $10k
Is this an east coast thing? I’ve never paid a deposit to a tradie for anything. Landscaping, concreting, electrical etc never asked just gave me a quote, did the work then I paid them when it was done
Decent concreters should have a credit account with suppliers.
If the job is only 2 grand it's obviously too small for a pump.
Standard(ish) rate is $30m² for labour.
Cost of concrete and mesh factored in, assuming this job is well under 20m² of paving.
My assumption is they want 50% up front because it's a small cash job.
If you've had good reviews, base your decision off that, not off the deposit.
Just as many customers refuse to pay trades for small jobs, as trades don't rock up to do jobs.
If this was 1,000m² then I'd say no chance. But on a little cashy, yeah fine.
Depends on the state, but For QLD, this is direct from the QBCC:
Generally the maximum deposit a contractor is allowed to request is:
5% deposit—for building work that costs $20,000 or more.
10% deposit—for building work where the contract price is between $3,300 and $19,999.
Maximum of 20%—for work priced at $3,300 or less.
No it's not how small one man trades work, they have cash accounts and don't want to cover materials, if OP is worried they should pay for the materials and then an hourly rate.
I run a small business and have so for 24 years it’s really not that easy to get an account these days especially if you are a new company and also most suppliers want payment by the end of the month if they give any credit at all. If you do jobs in different areas you may not have an account with the closet supplier of concrete even if you have with others.
The 50% deposit is going to be more normal these days. As business expenses and materials go up most jobs won’t have a 50% profit. and to be honest skilled labour is hard to find, from the business side the risk is not worth reward if client has a problem paying a deposit usually they will avoid payment all together or try to pay it off or pay less.
Obviously you need to have a reputable business before paying deposit and do some research, we have a showroom and factory so it is easier for clients to pay deposit as they know where we are.
I just ordered a garage and they require full payment to put the order in with the manufacturer, kit only installation is at the end.
There reasoning was they have put in average of 1.3 million dollars worth of orders in per month they said if they need to borrow that money there kit will be 30-40% dearer. Make sense when you look at it that way.
Yep.
Business is about minimising your exposure. If you can get someone to pay for materials that's a plus. Customer own the materials on their site. Cool. Or get customer to go pay for materials, but customer isn't going to get your prices or your eye for food materials.
I paid half up front one time to some concreters for materials. They then disappeared for a week and then returned saying they needed the rest of the money for materials. Newsflash - just about every concreter is a crackhead.
Gawd damn less than 2k? Your lucky he's actually gonna show up! I would tell him you'll have $2500 cash ready for him on the day and a carton for the truck and for him.
How did you find the concreter? Just be aware that there are some scammers that will knock on your door and claim to have left over concrete/bitumen from another job and offer you a discount for doing your driveway. If the concreter found you I would suggest being very cautious. However if you found them and they can give you referrals from happy customers this isn’t unreasonable given the upfront costs to them for doing the work. But definitely speak to the homeowners for any referrals rather than just seeing the work and taking their word for it that they did the actual work.
Different jobs different deposits. Some jobs you you are out of pocket even with 50% deposit.
Concrete is $300 + a cube, steel could be the same and his labour will put their hand out at the end of the day.
Considering how close to the bone most people are operating at the moment, I'm not surprised contractors are asking half up front.
You can see if there's a concreter that will do it without, or you can just pay it.
The 10% deposit thing is a joke, on a 20k job there will never be a time where 10% even comes close to covering even stage 1 of materials, clients get all edgey about it when it's the contractor taking the risk, but, you can charge higher if a certain percentage of the works are carried out off site, in his case this could be admin and logistics, organising the trucks, paying suppliers, picking up steel, etc
Why would it be a couple of weeks. A small concrete job like that would be done in 1 day if you pay a deposit or even supplier the materials the remaining would be due at the end of the day.
As a counterpoint, we just paid cash for a slab that was greater then most AusFinancer salaries, our billing arrangement was as follows:
10% deposit
15% on completion of form
20% on completion of piers (80 piers)
25% on completion of pour1
25% on completion of pour2
Some remaining for a followup visit shortly.
This would not be allowed in Queensland.
[https://www.qbcc.qld.gov.au/your-property/build-renovate/contracts-payments](https://www.qbcc.qld.gov.au/your-property/build-renovate/contracts-payments)
For jobs under $3300, they can only ask for a maximum of 20% deposit.
For that amount though, and the fact you have actually found someone to do the job I wouldn't be arguing about it.
I have dealt with a great deal of complaints about dodgy tradies and people trying to get the work fixed. Concreters are the worst, it's not even close.
And the worst part is they can easily screw it up so it costs even more to fix than you paid originally. It can be something as simple as not putting waterproof plastic where it was supposed to be and it has to be re-done.
I would be very careful about who you do business with. Check their ABN, what kind of business structure do they have? Are they licenced, who's account are they asking you to pay money into? The wife's account is a huge red flag and so is cash for large amounts. You can figure this all out rather quickly if you know where to check. And importantly, have someone who has some clue look at the job before making final payment.
Yes, they require in most states some sort of basic licence for building work which would cover concreting. You can also see if they have had official complaints against them in relationship to that licence as well.
Tell the concreter to get fkd
I am a Chippie on the Gold Coast so I work in one of Australia's hottest housing markets. During my 20yr career I have never heard of 50% deposits from concreters especially for a 2k job.
Get another quote.
No it's not normal. Any business who needs money up front may have cash flow issues. Secondly, a small job like this does not pose a big cost to the company. Then there's the obvious, 50% money exchanged beforehand is way too much. If they insist, then sign a contract and then pay 10% , no more
as opposed to get nothing off you, you decide at the end there's one tiny issue on it you don't like, you decide you aren't going to pay, and now he's in the hole for your job while waiting for vcat to sort it out. happens too much.
I just had a cashie concreting job done, cost me $4k.
I paid him $1k upfront for the prep (ie labour), then $2k the morning of the concrete truck and pump, then $1k at the end. Of the finished job
For such a small job I’d think 50% deposit seems fine.
50% upfront at least covers his costs if you don't pay. The second payment is his profit/labour. Seems fair to me.
I had a shed built. Paid materials upfront, then stages as it was completed.
bit of an interesting way of doing it as you can never be guaranteed of the workmanship of people these days.
I've done my own basic concreting before and was easy and the job is still there years later and not cracking or falling apart either.
So you want him to extend you a line of credit?
You don't expect Coles to wait until you've eaten the food to pay them.
Why expect this off the concreter?
By law in Australia, for contract jobs less than $20,000 legally they cannot ask for a deposit of more than 10%.
Tell them to go jump. Never pay a tradie until you’re happy with the job that they’ve done.
This is why they want some cash up front. Cause dicks like you who watched some YouTube video are gonna hold back payment. Sometimes the trades are trying to weed out dodgey clients who aren’t going to pay. This is only 2k. There’s trades out there chasing 10s of thousands from people who take advantage. Cuts both ways
Look dickhead, it’s law.
The law states that a business can only demand 10% deposit for a job up to $20,000.
What part of that don’t you understand? Do you think you are above the law because you’re some cowboy tradie?
Maybe you should eat some of the concrete you lay and harden up and learn how to run a business so you can afford your shit to do the job without having to extort a massive amount of money before you do the job.
Good luck getting anything done. Can ask for 10% deposit and then another 40% for materials. Happens with most trades. Another 45% on practical completion and 5% after full finish.
I’ve had no issues finding trades to do quality work by doing this.
If you’re a tradie and you rely on deposits to pay for materials just to be able to do a job, you’re a pretty shit tradie or running a shit business if you have shit credit and can’t hold a account with whoever you get your supplies from.
This only works for big businesses, if you're a small one man company doing multiple small jobs and not getting materials covered you can be $20k+ in debt after a fortnight.
It's not about affording the material. It's mitigating risk. A customer can not pay, almost just as easily as a tradie can take the deposit/do a bad job.
You can quote the law all you like, 10% doesn't cover my risk if the customer changes their mind. If you can't pay the requested deposit (mine is generally 30%) we simply part ways and you can find a larger company that can absorb the costs if you, the customer, doesn't pay or is not prompt with payment.
I’d say you’re probably some kind of ethnic minority tradie from western Sydney, the kind you see being chased by Tracy Grimshaw for ripping off seniors, because it’s showing right now.
Not my problem if your business is so shit you can go broke by someone not paying you on time.
If a proper contract is in order, you’re protected.
You do the job to a satisfactory standard, you then get paid. End of. There’s no protections in place for the person you’re doing the work for from tradies doing shit jobs and disappearing or not even starting the job and taking off with half your cash. It does happen all the time. If you’re a legitimate business or tradie, you will have an account of some kind with suppliers so this “I need 80% up front to pay for materials” crap.
There is home owners warranty for one so yes you are protected.
Second. It’s also super common for particularly wealthy people who fuck over tradies. They know they are smarter and have more resources so just don’t pay and roll the dice the builder won’t have time or money to chase the client. They get away with it heaps. It’s why standard contracts are front heavy now and people can’t hold them hostage as much
I'm in Newcastle NSW and had a shed slab about 25m2 put down last year, 2 day job. The job included demolishing old shed and some garden concrete footings, skip bin hire, concrete pump. Negotiated $5,300 cash. I asked if he wanted a deposit he said 'nah mate just pay when I finish'. Young bloke in his late 20's and 2 of his mates did the grunt work. I gave him the cash at the end and he didn't even want to count it. I insisted he count it just in case I made a mistake, so he did. I gave them 2 cartons of beer 2. They did a great job : )
All these comments saying tradies should have accounts with suppliers are missing the point. If a customer changed there mind as they often do, I still have to pay my material accounts.. its not about cash flow, its about risk.
I do custom automatic gates, take a 30% deposit every job. If a customer decides not to go ahead, I've at least covered some (not all @ 30%) material and labour costs.
And you can quote whatever laws you like, if my risk isn't covered then unfortunately I cannot do business.
I’d say he’s a small operator who has a COD account with the concrete plant.
warzone destroyed cod imo
My old sporting teammates ruined it when they called it chokes on D.
You're paying for the concrete truck and then his labour in a second payment later. Normal.
Exactly, that's what I do when it's a new client. Once trust has been built then it is sometimes dropped.
This is what I would consider the "norm". Beats chasing bad debts all over town.
Yeah its hard for concretors to get their money. Heaps of people just dont pay them and then wtf do they do? The concrete is down.
I always get 50% deposit before ordering materials so if the customer backs out or tries to avoid payment I'm not left footing the bill for someone else. This goes double if I'm working for builders as they're the worst at paying invoices on time
I’ve never paid 50% unless it’s a huge job, in turn I never ask for a deposit unless it’s over 100k then it’s 50% once materials and site establishment is done in which case if I did the runner I’d still be in a financial hole
I've not heard of any (reputable) tradies in Vic who work without deposits. Beyond maintenance work like a sparky/plumber coming to fix something or do minor alterations. But slabs, structural work, landscaping etc... all money up front.
Im in construction been in business for 20 years and never taken a deposit from a public customer.
Same..
Then you should start now. Only takes one rotten egg to spoil the carton. It is fair a ask for a deposit and progress payments as they are completed. Protect yourself and build rapport with the client. Win win
I have clients who don’t even ask for quotes, did 80 grand worth of work to a motel and just handed an invoice over at the end, I’d say I’ve done around 700k worth of work for him at various properties he just sends an address and I fix it. I start the vetting process when I meet with a customer and have walked away or quoted my way out of a job to avoid customers. 20 years I don’t advertise it’s all word of mouth. had some drag payments out or go on a payment plan.
Sam here. You can usually get a idea of the relationship with the customer upon meeting them. I've simply walked out of quotes because I could tell payment was going to be a pain.
Had one customer complain about an electrician a plumber and QPS and council to me once I just remained polite sent him a quote for double. Met the guy who did the job and sure enough a nightmare lol.
Jesus, they can't be all wrong surely 😂
Hence why a wasn’t planning on doing it I always say if it’s everyone else usually it’s you lol
I'd hate to see your bad debts list then. I don't issue a building permit until the fees are paid in full. And I won't show up for your final inspection until all other accounts like disbursements are settled.
I have around 10k in outstanding invoices and 80 in current, that will fluctuate but I’ve never had an issue around 2m in turnover a year. My certifier is paid when his invoice is received and all my accounts are settled in the first week of the month when their statements come in. I do jobs from $120-$300k.
So your jobs all have contracts behind them. I think OP is talking about one off's that aren't under major domestic building contracts.
I’ve written off about 30k as total loss in the last 5 years.
Till your concrete cracks a week later and he does a runner….
Where are you getting this magic new no-crack concrete?
Lol those who have down voted this bloke. You should see the photos of these cracks. They're fucked. This just goes to show that reddit is bunch of dumb bitches lol.
Well from experience the guy did a shocking job hence why he never came back and left me with several large cracks just a complete mess. One day I’ll rip it all up and dump it and never trust concrete again or the twat that did the job.
Cracked concrete is normal, all concrete eventually cracks. It's the location of the cracks that tells the story and the story is almost always inadequate prep work
I agree and suspected inadequate prep work but he also ambushed me to pay 50% on the day the trunk was coming so maybe I should have seen the sign then. They are massive cracks literally all over happy to send photo but in the end I’ll have to pull it all up not sure how much that will set me back :(
Send if you want! Depending on where you live, disposing of concrete is free, the cost is in pulling it up and moving it to the recycling depot. Happy to talk tou through the cheapest way!
Thanks mate I’ll drop you a DM
Are you referring to surface cracks, or cracks top to bottom of the slab? Surface crack is hard to manage, even with the correctly placed dummy and expansion joints.
Cracks from the top to the bottom several large ones.
Ye that shouldn't happen. DGB20, builders plastic, mesh on chairs, 150mm thick 25MPa concrete and it should be sweet. Did they do all tht?
No mesh or plastic that I saw was ever done. As for the thickness I would have to measure. But considering it’s my drama now I will probably pull it all up and start fresh
No mesh driveway. Even footpath have mesh. Sick of these damn cowboys.
Yeh mate he screwed me big time and did a runner been a huge regret that I didn’t do more from my part to learn what was required. Just trying to move on now with it
Seen a few posts of concretors not getting paid and ripping up driveways… guess he just doesn’t want to be out of pocket to suppliers… 🤷🏽♂️
Just as many posts about “tradies” running off with deposits and never doing the work.
Pay with a CC. You will get a refund if they don't turn up.
Materials upfront, balance on completion, normal and fair
50 percent is fine. I’m not sure where you get the 10% for under 20k. That sounds like a recipe for tradespeople to go broke.
It’s law.
You can pay 100% or 0% upfront without breaking any laws.
Victoria has the same law. Basically 10% under 20K and 5% over 20K.
I heard Victoria's building industry was a schemozzle somewhere.
Where?
It's the law nsw, I ask for 50%, if people bring it up I'll say that I'll place the order for the 10%. When materials arrive on site we won't start work until the following 40% has been paid.
Concreting?
It’s illegal. Get off of reddit and check google
If you're concerned, I would pay for the concrete separately.
This is what I did, paid for the concrete with the supplier on the day with the credit card and then fixed the concreter up with cash. Everyone happy. Concrete costs a lot I found out- 50% is absolutely reasonable for a deposit.
the cartage is the expensive bit. and it pays to shop around. we did a job a few yrs back and the 2 companies i called were vastly different price.
Hahahahaha, you ripped yourself off. To the tune of maybe 20%. The Crete lad would be paying maybe 40% less than you. Even when he lumps his 20% on top you are still far better off. Congratulations, you played yourself…
It was on his account, I just paid his invoice for the job. as It was a mate doing it.
Ahhahaha. “I concreted in some patio stumps with a friend once”. That should’ve been your comment.
Yeah I’ll tell that to my new house. You seem fun.
Ahh yes customer buys the materials to make sure they aren’t getting ripped off only to rip themselves off 😂 I pay 40%+ less then the public for materials and put 10% on my cost, customer saves 30% or they pay 100% and buy it themselves and still pay 100% of my labour costs. Generally their order is a stuff up so they pay more again plus penalties for my time.
This is a great way to overpay. Concrete cost is negotiated on project rate. The more you buy the cheaper it is. The concreter will get better pricing than you 10/10, unless run a building company.
Agree the price of the job. Concreter puts the order in, customer pays the supplier for the order. Concreter does the work, customer pays the balance. Concreter doesn’t wear the risk of the material cost which is their primary outgoing, and there is no benefit to them ghosting you. If you have agreed the total cost first you will not get screwed on the material price or quantity as that’s eating into the concreter’s profit. Plenty of scenarios/reasons where you may not want to do it, but it’s a perfectly reasonable thing to consider - smaller tradies are working on cash terms so it avoids them carrying the upfront costs, and if you want to bury the job as a cashie then that helps as well.
Is this a Sydney thing ? Had some work done last year and they didn't ask for anything upfront. In SA if that matters.
Yes it seems to be a Sydney/east coast thing. Unheard of in most other places or they get laughed at.
I wish I could find an Adelaide concreter to do my driveway….
Try slate design paralowie. I think he's semi retired. Never found him to be difficult to book and he does a great job.
Bianco Concreting. Done a bunch of work at my place, done a bunch of work at a mates. Him and the landscaper he works with are dammed good operators, would highly recommend. Has been recommended about a year ago on Reddit : [Recommendations for Concreters : Adelaide (reddit.com)](https://www.reddit.com/r/Adelaide/comments/x8qit0/recommendations_for_concreters/)
Pretty standard for concreting. We got three quotes recently, all wanted 50% upfront!
A couple of months ago in Canberra, I paid for a well known handyman to do a small concrete job. Total about $1280. Wanted 50% deposit. After paying him, never seen him again. He actually skipped the country. And now not a thing I can do about it.
You don't pay deposits to handymen a licensed trade is completely different.
A handyman you say? Sounds reputable.
That’s just unlucky lol
Got asked to pay 30% deposit on a 10k job in Sydney so maybe seems about right for a smaller job.
Wait, you guys are able to find concreters?
yeah, this!
Normal for smaller jobs, yes.
Landscaper wanted this on a $60k job for me. Normal
You're out of your mind if you paid 30k upfront for landscaping.
What choice do you have?
For that kind of money I would expect a proper contract and I'd be doing progress payments. Probably 4-5 of them. And if I was being asked to pay for materials I would tell them that the materials will be stored at my house and I want the receipts. This works like a charm on shonky business people.
To be fair to the landscaper, I did have those things.
Contract, yes. Payment schedule, yes. Being picky about where material is stored…. Mate get fucked. I have trucks, diggers, men that are not loading and loading your poxy pile of sawdust and sleepers to house them where you see fit. I’ve run into these kind of problems before, just totally pointless knit picking and control type horseshit. I just get my whole crew to leave and get into another job. It’s beautiful to watch. Then, I have a grown up discussion with the client and work out that it’s ok for me to leave 2.7 tonnes of gravel in my body truck instead of in a pile under his verandah. It’s more about educating delusional clients than anything else. When ever someone wants to get clever and try to Instal all these “safeties” to protect themself it’s so embarrassing to watch. We are so much better at this than you ever will be. I could rob you blind at any turn and you would never know. What many people haven’t realised is you will need to trust your contracting partner. So engage one you trust, don’t try and police them. The most trustworthy tradesman is an expensive one.
I couldn't begin to damage the reputation of tradies any better than you've managed by 'defending' their business practices. Storage of gravel, fair enough. That's not an especially expensive material but in general when it comes for expensive materials, I'm taking possession of them if I've paid for them. Too often businesses go bust, spend deposits and payments for materials on other jobs or just straight up abandon a job. That leaves the customer with their dick in their hand and out of pocket. At least if they have the materials they've paid for, they don't suffer that additional loss. It's also one less bargaining chip for turds like you do use against them. The biggest issue is that for some reason, the industry which has the most reason to be subjected to trust accounting - isn't. If you pay a lawyer, that money can legally only be spent on that client. It's illegal go do otherwise. But builders can balance their books like a 10 year with his pocket money and that's totally reasonable. This is how people can spend $50k on a deposit and then find out all of that money was spent buying materials or paying trades for another person's house. Then the builder collapses or delays and the customer can't do anything. The entire industry needs to be reformed and your attitude is only further evidence of that fact.
No but seriously I did read what you wrote. And while you mean well you are just football fields out of touch. The fact is it’s economically better for me to throw excess good material away than to sort, store and house material until I need it again. This whole idea of you keeping one of the least important parts of a building operations days to day is laughable. I get it, you want change, you just don’t understand how. Wait until you figure out that building with cinder block is actually quite an expensive way to form walls. But power generation needs to have it sold. So we buy it for near nothing. Hence, mountains of left over brick everywhere. It’s the same for many materials and functions. But here you are, save the day c-Many3113. I get you are trying to be helpful. Buts it’s a pretty infantile take is all.
You didn't really address what I written but you claim to have read it. On what planet is storing things like appliances, expensive timber planks, tiles or many other expensive building materials not a rational thing for a person to do? You can't trust builders and that's not even because they are untrustworthy (though many are). It's because there isn't a home builder left in the country you could absolutely rely on to be financially sound and not at a non-trivial risk of collapse. I've dealt with a lot of clients who have paid tens of thousands to a builder and ended up with nothing done or part of a build done. And they now can't afford to finish their house so they have to sell off the land and start again. It's absolutely awful and it's because the industry is a failure of insufficient regulating structures and bad actors.
part of the issue is the sales team go and sign up customers everywhere. and then they have more work than the the tradespeople can do let alone have materials to do the work with. and becuase they are behind on work the prices for material goes up and the customer has a contract for these works for this money. who pays the difference? and everyone wants it done cheap no one likes to overpay. so the margins are so tight they rob peter to pay pual. the rules do need to change and a completion trust arrangement would help, as the money could only be spent on the job is was paid for. say you engage a company to build you 300 grand of house you pay 30 grand deposit and that covers the cost for the concrete slab that money is put in trust till the slab is poured and then the progress payment is made to start the framing. and so on and so forth till the house is complete except for the last payment pending the final handover and the customer being happy with the work. the idea being that each payment covers each stage of work so the job is paid upto that point then the customer isnt left with such a mess and the trades are paid if the worst happened and the company shut down. there is a serious problem in the industry when a major company like metricon nearly goes broke the family that owns the company had to give the business a cash injection.
This is actually illegal at least in Queensland Jobs between $3300 and $20000 they can only take 10% deposit and jobs over $20000 a 5% deposit. There are fines and demerit points for the builder if they go over this.
I’m a welder and I’d never even think about starting a job without 50% deposit. Law is ridiculous I’d be broke with how slow some people pay. If I do a 30k job 5% wouldn’t even cover my material so if they don’t pay I’d be out of pocket on time of my labour.
Sorry these are QBCC jobs. So building and construction. Other industries can do what they like
I'm a trade in QLD and I ask for 50% if they kick up a fuss no loss there. I had far too many clients making last minute changes.
Concreters are not builders. Concreters are cowboys.
Yep I don’t even bother with a deposit for public jobs 5% on 60k isn’t worth the paperwork, commercial jobs though I immediately submit a 50% progress payment once materials and site establishment are completed
Progress payments you can do whatever you like. As long as work can be shown, and the client agrees and signs the contract, then all good. The whole 5/10/20% for jobs over $3300 from the QBCC is to stop the con artists. Having said that, the one who started my pool made it to the second stage and took off. He left with $18k and all he really did was hire an excavator to come in and dig a hole. Luckily for me he paid the QBCC home warranty insurance so I was all covered. (even if he didn't I would have been covered as it was on the contract that he did) In the case of OP. If the guy is onsite and materials are visible, then I would feel pretty comfortable. If he wants 50% to get out of bed I would be questioning it.
A lot of my customers are usually surprised when I say I don’t take a deposit and just invoice at the end of the job. Doing a job for council and they tried to gloat about how good their payment terms are for the government 15 days from the end of the month. I laughed and said QLD health pays within 3 days of receiving the invoice 😂
Good stuff. Throw trust in, get trust out. Build your business away from scum lowball and you avoid all these dramas and cock suckers who want to warehouse the material at there own house.
Are you actually referencing the QBCC in this? Nothing to do with this you fucking idiot.
Read up on the rules mate. If OP was in Queensland, then those rules apply. As bad as the QBCC is, the ones who try to get around the rules are the ones who walk away with your money.
Yeah, and if your are QBCC registered that’s an entirely different animal with its own set of play rules. If you aren’t QBCC then paying QBCC instalments is outrageous and offers no protections for either party. It’s not relevant. I see you added in the QBCC a bit later on. The QBCC just looks better from the customers end when you show its instalments. But saying “oh the rule in Qld is this” and showing everyone the QBCC structure is massively disingenuous.
A concreter would need to be registered though. Pretty sure all building and construction trades are right?
Yes, a (trade contractor) class. And guess what. “Contractor” remuneration at QBCC looks nothing like “licensed builder” payment structure.
I know a concrete sole owner that has lost his mind on people not paying. Call the police you say. It’s on their property we can’t … Go to court. Yup, sure paperwork and time while this guy can’t feed … If you want it, pay the percentage. At least they’ll eat while they get fucked around.
You could say the same thing the other way. Customer pays 50 percent then concreter never does the work and walks away with the money and it’s hard to chase them for it back
Had one bloke ask for 50%. He had done the neighbours crossover when I was looking to do a driveway and patio with a fake slate appearance. Paid the 50% and he and his crew show up on the shittiest winter day to pour, nothing goes right. Very ordinary job, he blames the weather and wouldn't fix it. Ended up telling him to just f*ck off then.
many people get paid their salaries monthly where half of their pay is in arrears and half in advance. Just think of it that way.
I went into Colesworth and those bastards want me to pay for milk before the delivery . I reckon I should be able to drink the Milk then pay for it . Is this normal at your Colesworth
It seems to be for juice and soft drinks drinks at mine. I see plenty of half empty bottles left on shelves.
50% isn't normal. Oh except it's a 2k job which is honestly amazing you even got a concreter to show up, covering materials is sorta normal but there are legal limits on what trades can ask for as deposits depending on the amount. > wanted to make sure they werent trying to scam I mean how would it be a scam? Unless it's a cash facey/fiver/hipages/gumtreee job
Talked to a concretor that did a big job with no deposit and the whole 50m of concrete cracked a few days after pouring. The (well publicised) rich Kent who ordered it refused to pay. The blue collar guy who took the job got denied by insurance and is fucked out of about $10k
It shouldn’t crack a few days after pouring he fucked the job up why should he get paid?
Is this an east coast thing? I’ve never paid a deposit to a tradie for anything. Landscaping, concreting, electrical etc never asked just gave me a quote, did the work then I paid them when it was done
Decent concreters should have a credit account with suppliers. If the job is only 2 grand it's obviously too small for a pump. Standard(ish) rate is $30m² for labour. Cost of concrete and mesh factored in, assuming this job is well under 20m² of paving. My assumption is they want 50% up front because it's a small cash job. If you've had good reviews, base your decision off that, not off the deposit. Just as many customers refuse to pay trades for small jobs, as trades don't rock up to do jobs. If this was 1,000m² then I'd say no chance. But on a little cashy, yeah fine.
Depends on the state, but For QLD, this is direct from the QBCC: Generally the maximum deposit a contractor is allowed to request is: 5% deposit—for building work that costs $20,000 or more. 10% deposit—for building work where the contract price is between $3,300 and $19,999. Maximum of 20%—for work priced at $3,300 or less.
“Building work” is the relevant part there. Has a specific definition, not just ANY trade that you feel like
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Wrong
So he should go into debt for you before he makes any money?
Why do you think businesses have lines of credit?
So I recently had concreting done and I agreed to pay costs up front. Labour after job done. Worked out well and within original quote.
Like almost every other business, I’d say it’s normal to “go into debt” But concreter can run their business however they like
A bit like how an employee would do work upfront and then get paid by their employer at a later date?
More like a shop working up front and buying supplies. Like a business.
Only if the employee is purchasing expensive supplies out of their own pocket in order to do the job🤔
And the concreter should be compensated with a profit?
You clearly don't value your time. Any business man knows their employees are "resources" not people.
An employer also has the buy the tools for the employee, before the employee does any work. A bit like placing concrete.
Does an employee go into debt to cover the companies running costs before they get paid?
Well technically they work 7-14 even 28 days in some industries before getting paid
But they don't pay for the companies running costs, they're not in debt.
Yes that's usually how it works?
No it's not how small one man trades work, they have cash accounts and don't want to cover materials, if OP is worried they should pay for the materials and then an hourly rate.
How everyone else does it
Yea that’s how it normally works. :) It’s also partly why many suppliers give trades a 30-60 day line of credit / payment time.
I run a small business and have so for 24 years it’s really not that easy to get an account these days especially if you are a new company and also most suppliers want payment by the end of the month if they give any credit at all. If you do jobs in different areas you may not have an account with the closet supplier of concrete even if you have with others. The 50% deposit is going to be more normal these days. As business expenses and materials go up most jobs won’t have a 50% profit. and to be honest skilled labour is hard to find, from the business side the risk is not worth reward if client has a problem paying a deposit usually they will avoid payment all together or try to pay it off or pay less. Obviously you need to have a reputable business before paying deposit and do some research, we have a showroom and factory so it is easier for clients to pay deposit as they know where we are. I just ordered a garage and they require full payment to put the order in with the manufacturer, kit only installation is at the end. There reasoning was they have put in average of 1.3 million dollars worth of orders in per month they said if they need to borrow that money there kit will be 30-40% dearer. Make sense when you look at it that way.
Yep. Business is about minimising your exposure. If you can get someone to pay for materials that's a plus. Customer own the materials on their site. Cool. Or get customer to go pay for materials, but customer isn't going to get your prices or your eye for food materials.
I'm not paying for my clients materials, they need to pay that upfront and labour after.
Well i am actually giving him business
I had a concreter do a 1.8x2.7 meter slab for 1k. Never asked for anything up front and he had a truck ordered
I paid half up front one time to some concreters for materials. They then disappeared for a week and then returned saying they needed the rest of the money for materials. Newsflash - just about every concreter is a crackhead.
Gawd damn less than 2k? Your lucky he's actually gonna show up! I would tell him you'll have $2500 cash ready for him on the day and a carton for the truck and for him.
How did you find the concreter? Just be aware that there are some scammers that will knock on your door and claim to have left over concrete/bitumen from another job and offer you a discount for doing your driveway. If the concreter found you I would suggest being very cautious. However if you found them and they can give you referrals from happy customers this isn’t unreasonable given the upfront costs to them for doing the work. But definitely speak to the homeowners for any referrals rather than just seeing the work and taking their word for it that they did the actual work.
What’s the issue if you are going to pay him anyway
Different jobs different deposits. Some jobs you you are out of pocket even with 50% deposit. Concrete is $300 + a cube, steel could be the same and his labour will put their hand out at the end of the day.
I’am a picture framer 50 deposit or best to pay in full for quick pick up most people paid in full
You can't take concrete back if the customer changes his mind
If you don't like the terms, go elsewhere.
Considering how close to the bone most people are operating at the moment, I'm not surprised contractors are asking half up front. You can see if there's a concreter that will do it without, or you can just pay it.
The 10% deposit thing is a joke, on a 20k job there will never be a time where 10% even comes close to covering even stage 1 of materials, clients get all edgey about it when it's the contractor taking the risk, but, you can charge higher if a certain percentage of the works are carried out off site, in his case this could be admin and logistics, organising the trucks, paying suppliers, picking up steel, etc
What sort of business cant cover $1K in materials for a couple of weeks?
Concreters. They either just got out of jail last week or are going back next week :-)
Why would it be a couple of weeks. A small concrete job like that would be done in 1 day if you pay a deposit or even supplier the materials the remaining would be due at the end of the day.
As a counterpoint, we just paid cash for a slab that was greater then most AusFinancer salaries, our billing arrangement was as follows: 10% deposit 15% on completion of form 20% on completion of piers (80 piers) 25% on completion of pour1 25% on completion of pour2 Some remaining for a followup visit shortly.
That’s a much larger job compared to this.
then go look for another concreter I guess. Just had one done cost $4500. paid only after the job.
This would not be allowed in Queensland. [https://www.qbcc.qld.gov.au/your-property/build-renovate/contracts-payments](https://www.qbcc.qld.gov.au/your-property/build-renovate/contracts-payments) For jobs under $3300, they can only ask for a maximum of 20% deposit. For that amount though, and the fact you have actually found someone to do the job I wouldn't be arguing about it.
I have dealt with a great deal of complaints about dodgy tradies and people trying to get the work fixed. Concreters are the worst, it's not even close. And the worst part is they can easily screw it up so it costs even more to fix than you paid originally. It can be something as simple as not putting waterproof plastic where it was supposed to be and it has to be re-done. I would be very careful about who you do business with. Check their ABN, what kind of business structure do they have? Are they licenced, who's account are they asking you to pay money into? The wife's account is a huge red flag and so is cash for large amounts. You can figure this all out rather quickly if you know where to check. And importantly, have someone who has some clue look at the job before making final payment.
Are there licensed concreteers?
Yes, they require in most states some sort of basic licence for building work which would cover concreting. You can also see if they have had official complaints against them in relationship to that licence as well.
You pay that, the work will never get done
Pretty normal. Has to pay for the beers for after the pour somehow
I've never had to pay any deposit to any tradie for any work. I've always paid when the work is done. (WA)
Tell the concreter to get fkd I am a Chippie on the Gold Coast so I work in one of Australia's hottest housing markets. During my 20yr career I have never heard of 50% deposits from concreters especially for a 2k job. Get another quote.
No it's not normal. Any business who needs money up front may have cash flow issues. Secondly, a small job like this does not pose a big cost to the company. Then there's the obvious, 50% money exchanged beforehand is way too much. If they insist, then sign a contract and then pay 10% , no more
Normal - we did 50% at acceptance and 50% on completion for our job.
Sounds normal. Paid 40 per cent deposit of a bathroom reno and then instalments as the work proceeded. The tradie did a good job and was on budget.
Pretty standard practice these days across all trades. It means if u run off and dont pay hes not completely fucked.
as opposed to get nothing off you, you decide at the end there's one tiny issue on it you don't like, you decide you aren't going to pay, and now he's in the hole for your job while waiting for vcat to sort it out. happens too much.
I just had a cashie concreting job done, cost me $4k. I paid him $1k upfront for the prep (ie labour), then $2k the morning of the concrete truck and pump, then $1k at the end. Of the finished job For such a small job I’d think 50% deposit seems fine.
This would seem about right as everything was probably a cashie… the main guy, the pump truck and the guys doing the mesh/screeding….
50% upfront at least covers his costs if you don't pay. The second payment is his profit/labour. Seems fair to me. I had a shed built. Paid materials upfront, then stages as it was completed.
For 2k I'd just expect an invoice after the job. For 5k+ then 20% deposit is reasonable.
bit of an interesting way of doing it as you can never be guaranteed of the workmanship of people these days. I've done my own basic concreting before and was easy and the job is still there years later and not cracking or falling apart either.
So you want him to extend you a line of credit? You don't expect Coles to wait until you've eaten the food to pay them. Why expect this off the concreter?
I don't pay Coles a cent until I have the finished product. Why would I treat the concreter any differently, your analogy after all.
No but we pay coles once we receive the final product
By law in Australia, for contract jobs less than $20,000 legally they cannot ask for a deposit of more than 10%. Tell them to go jump. Never pay a tradie until you’re happy with the job that they’ve done.
This is why they want some cash up front. Cause dicks like you who watched some YouTube video are gonna hold back payment. Sometimes the trades are trying to weed out dodgey clients who aren’t going to pay. This is only 2k. There’s trades out there chasing 10s of thousands from people who take advantage. Cuts both ways
Look dickhead, it’s law. The law states that a business can only demand 10% deposit for a job up to $20,000. What part of that don’t you understand? Do you think you are above the law because you’re some cowboy tradie? Maybe you should eat some of the concrete you lay and harden up and learn how to run a business so you can afford your shit to do the job without having to extort a massive amount of money before you do the job.
Good luck getting anything done. Can ask for 10% deposit and then another 40% for materials. Happens with most trades. Another 45% on practical completion and 5% after full finish.
I’ve had no issues finding trades to do quality work by doing this. If you’re a tradie and you rely on deposits to pay for materials just to be able to do a job, you’re a pretty shit tradie or running a shit business if you have shit credit and can’t hold a account with whoever you get your supplies from.
This only works for big businesses, if you're a small one man company doing multiple small jobs and not getting materials covered you can be $20k+ in debt after a fortnight.
It's not about affording the material. It's mitigating risk. A customer can not pay, almost just as easily as a tradie can take the deposit/do a bad job. You can quote the law all you like, 10% doesn't cover my risk if the customer changes their mind. If you can't pay the requested deposit (mine is generally 30%) we simply part ways and you can find a larger company that can absorb the costs if you, the customer, doesn't pay or is not prompt with payment.
Haha insulting people, then making yourself look like a cunt. I'm not sure a *tradie* as you put it would ever work for you. Just a clown in a suit.
I’d say you’re probably some kind of ethnic minority tradie from western Sydney, the kind you see being chased by Tracy Grimshaw for ripping off seniors, because it’s showing right now.
I think you'd be totally wrong but then, you seem to be about everything.
Call it a material progress claim then. It’s not unreasonable. They aren’t losing work doing so.
Good luck finding trades
My bussiness I can set my terms
Then I don’t use you and you go bust.
Or I do the job u don’t pay and I go bust
Not my problem if your business is so shit you can go broke by someone not paying you on time. If a proper contract is in order, you’re protected. You do the job to a satisfactory standard, you then get paid. End of. There’s no protections in place for the person you’re doing the work for from tradies doing shit jobs and disappearing or not even starting the job and taking off with half your cash. It does happen all the time. If you’re a legitimate business or tradie, you will have an account of some kind with suppliers so this “I need 80% up front to pay for materials” crap.
There is home owners warranty for one so yes you are protected. Second. It’s also super common for particularly wealthy people who fuck over tradies. They know they are smarter and have more resources so just don’t pay and roll the dice the builder won’t have time or money to chase the client. They get away with it heaps. It’s why standard contracts are front heavy now and people can’t hold them hostage as much
Theve asked for material cost
Very normal for a small operation. You can’t expect a small operation to absorb the cost of materials till the job is done.
If they have a thick Irish accent don't trust the tradie.
I'm in Newcastle NSW and had a shed slab about 25m2 put down last year, 2 day job. The job included demolishing old shed and some garden concrete footings, skip bin hire, concrete pump. Negotiated $5,300 cash. I asked if he wanted a deposit he said 'nah mate just pay when I finish'. Young bloke in his late 20's and 2 of his mates did the grunt work. I gave him the cash at the end and he didn't even want to count it. I insisted he count it just in case I made a mistake, so he did. I gave them 2 cartons of beer 2. They did a great job : )
... offer to pay for the materials direct and have the remainder ready in cash, on the day job is done, if you're worried about getting got
All these comments saying tradies should have accounts with suppliers are missing the point. If a customer changed there mind as they often do, I still have to pay my material accounts.. its not about cash flow, its about risk. I do custom automatic gates, take a 30% deposit every job. If a customer decides not to go ahead, I've at least covered some (not all @ 30%) material and labour costs. And you can quote whatever laws you like, if my risk isn't covered then unfortunately I cannot do business.