The subtrades/workers page

This page is meant to help subtrades and employees of builders not contribute to the problem. There are a few things you can do to reduce the risk to you and the end customer.

1) If you are a subtrade and you are willing to extend credit make sure that you put a deadline on the bill to the contractor of 30 days or less. if you get stiffed after 30 days that gives you 12 days to apply a lien to the house you were working on and it gives the homeowner time to do something about the lien. Make sure you tell the contractor that you will be contacting the homeowner directly if not paid in 30 days. If you are not paid make sure you inform the homeowner as soon as you initiate lien procedures, tell them in writing so that they can hold back the lien amount from the next payment. This will allow them to stop all payments to the builder until you are paid. It gives you and the homeowner leverage on the builder to get people paid.

2) do not extend more credit than you can afford to lose. If your business can't afford to lose $10,000 do not extend more than that to one person, get them to pay half up front, stop working for them if you are not paid in time. If the contractor in this day and age cannot afford to pay you then there is likely something wrong.

3) Do not do work that you think you should not do just to make the customer happy. If there are no lights or heat when you arrive to do the basement floor then you need to say that it can't be done. If you come to put in plumbing and you have not been paid for the last batch of work you and the customer need to wait. Rushing things because the builder screwed up does not benifit anyone but the builder.