money up front for roofing job, is this normal practice?

[Little Plumb]

We are having some garage roofs replaced (flat roofs) the quote for the whole job is about £8500.

The guy doing the job has asked for £3800 up front for materials.

Just wondered if this was normal procedure in the roofing trade.

Got the guy from yellow pages, so don't really know him from adam, seems genuine enough but you never know.

 

[JohnD]

Haha, if I then run off, I'll be £3,800 up on the deal!

If I'm not planning to run off, the only reason I need cash to buy materials is that all the local suppliers have blacklisted me because I've failed to pay my account.

 

[^woody^]

How much? Is this for Gold Leaf?

Either way, I would only ever pay someone a proportion of the cost if I knew them, knew them to be trustworthy, and only to help out if they were a small business and it helped with their cash-flow for buying costly materials.

That figure seems to be for much more than materials. Probably financing another job or his holiday before he does yours - if he comes back

I would never pay an unknown firm or person such a large amount of money, and they should never ask for it.

 

[Thermo]

sounds a lot to me, however i do ask for a cheque for a small proportion of a job when i start. I always ask for a cheque as it gives the customer a bit more security than cash, knowing that i wont run off with it, but it also proves to me they can and will open their chequebook. It does work both ways.

 

[Little Plumb]

Thanks for the replies.

The job is for 12 garage roofs (box profile coated) + a bin store(board & felt) and the quote seemed quite reasonable as he's removing the old cement-asbestos roofs.

Seems I'll have to try to come to some sort of other arrangement with him. We accepted his quote a few weeks ago, it's only now he's mentioned up front payment.

Like JohnD said what's happened to his account with local suppliers?

 

[JohnD]

If I was negotiating a commercial contract, it'd be X% on completion, balance Y% N days after found to be working properly (no leaks and not falling off, I suppose, for you). I wouldn't want to pay anything before I'd got something delivered I could use. If, as in your case, it was roofing of multiple units, and the supplier had cash-flow probs, I might consider staged payments on completion of individual units. But the staged payments would always be less than the work was "worth" so that he'd have an incentive to complete the whole job and get his final payment.

If, after you think you've agreed terms, the supplier suggests changing the payment terms, you'd be entitled to re-open negotiations (which he has in fact done) including the total price. If you let him get away with restructuring the terms this time, maybe, half way through the job, he will try to reopen negotiations by saying it's worse than he'd expected so the price will be higher.