Oregon Contractor Laws Part 3

Part 3 in our four-part series on Oregon Contractor Laws.

What are some important aspects of a contract with a contractor?

Millard: Whenever you intend to enter a construction contract with a building contractor, is many things that you need to consider. First is how much money should I give this contractor upfront. Oftentimes contractors will ask you for half of the money, or a quarter of the money before they come to do any work. Theres potential problems with that, the problems are number one what does that tell you about the contractors, are you there to finance the contractor’s business, or should the contractor finance his own business. One of the major pitfalls that people run into is that the contractor has all the money and the work is not anywhere near completed and that is a common problem that folks run into and it’s an unfortunate story that I hear here very often. One of the ways to protect yourself against that is to come up with an amicable or to consider an amicable basis on how payments will be made through the course of the project.

What is the problem with paying your contractor before the work is complete?

Millard: Oftentimes the problem that folks encounter in that type of scenario is that once the contractor gets paid you go to the bottom of the list. The work is not completed because no more profits remain. You don’t want to find yourself in that type of position. There are ways to protect yourself, that’s something that you really should talk about with an attorney when you’re preparing or planning on signing a contract.