When you are about to enter into a contract with your home renovation contractor, take a few minutes to look at the contract documents very carefully. In fact, try to look at it from the viewpoint of someone who has no clue what you are trying to get accomplished….This can be very enlightening. If all you are looking at is the contractors agreement form you will likely find that it is extremely generalized and avoids much of anything specifically related to YOUR project. No doubt it will address cost, terms of payment and the like but does it specifically relate to the work you want to have done? In the vast majority of cases the answer to this question will be an emphatic ‘no’. Instead the homeowner goes forward with “the deal” by signing the contractor’s generic agreement and relies on what was discussed, described and promised verbally during the initial stages of your negotiations.
This situation invites an age-old malady affectionately referred to as “selective amnesia” or “well….you may be what you heard that but what you heard was not what I meant”. Mixed in with all of this will be the usual “I didn’t figure on having to do that” or “I understand but this part of the situation was a lot more complicated to handle than I thought and it cost me more money so you have to pay for it” and so it goes.
Your written agreement leaves you no real or technical point for argument so it’s back to your understanding vs. the contractor’s understanding or, in more familiar terms, your word against his. Since it’s his contract and since you hired him as a “professional” the general attitude of courts and judges in the event of a legal conflict will more than likely lean toward the “professional”.
How do you combat this eventuality? Stated simplistically, carefully and as thoroughly as possible define your project before you sign anything and attach that information to the contract as an “exhibit”. There are a number of good ways to do this, the best being the preparation of a reasonably accurate well noted drawing or drawings. Since many people are not equipped to do this, there is a much more simplistic but reasonably effective way to at least establish some degree of definition and points of argument, should they be needed.
For this exercise a pocket or portable recorder is ideal but writing down the information is good as well. Simply figure out a sequence that will be convenient for you , the homeowner, to follow and then go room by room and methodically describe everything you know that you would like to have accomplished by the contractor during the renovation process. It usually helps if you can define walls consistently by “north, south, east or west” but this is not critical. Much depends on how thorough you decide to make the description(s). Once you have walked through and documented all affected rooms or areas, transcribe your verbal or hand written notes into a legible (preferably typed) document. Next, put the notes aside for a couple of days and think about other things. After this break, go back through the exact same sequence, reading your notes and make sure you haven’t omitted something important and that you have not been too general. It is a good practice, if possible, to take photos of the areas you want to modify and label them according to your verbal description (e.g., room name, wall designation, ceiling, etc.). It is often a good idea to have someone else do this walk through also to make sure there is not something serious that could be misinterpreted. In addition, a party who was not involved in your initial analysis may well ask questions that generate more information you can include.
Finally, when you meet with the contractor to discuss the work to be done, give him/her a copy of this to look at while you take him through the house. At this point he/she will be aware that you know what you want and there is little chance there will be any argument about including this document as an attachment or “exhibit” to his contract.
Tags: contract documents, eventuality, home renovation, initial stages, legal conflict, malady, no doubt, renovation contractor, selective amnesia, viewpoint