On site · High risk
Should you pay this request?
Check the work claimed is genuinely complete before releasing anything.
- When it lands
- Every single payment request.
- What it costs to get wrong
- One overpayment early can leave you funding the end of the job twice if the relationship breaks down.
The schedule protects you only if you use it. Every payment request deserves the same three minutes: is the work actually done, does the arithmetic work, and is the money going to the company you contracted with?
Inspect before you pay
Walk the site against the stage description. Photograph what has been completed, with the date. It takes minutes and it is the entire defence against paying twice.
A homeowner approved payments from a phone in a hurry without walking the site. Two stages overlapped and one area of plastering was claimed in both. The overpayment was only discovered at the final account, by which point recovering it was a negotiation rather than a correction.
Check the arithmetic and the VAT
Does this request plus everything paid so far equal what the schedule says at this stage? Are variations invoiced separately and matched to your log? Is VAT charged at the right rate, and is the company VAT registered if it is charging it?
Pay the company, on an invoice
Payments go to the contracting company's account, against a proper invoice, by bank transfer. Not to an individual, not in cash, and never to new bank details supplied by email without phoning to verify them — invoice redirection fraud is common in construction and the money is rarely recovered.
Why this one matters
This is the routine decision that quietly protects everything else. Walk the site with the request in hand; it takes ten minutes and keeps the whole schedule honest.
Do this week
- Walk and photograph the site before releasing the next payment.
- Reconcile the request against the schedule and the variations log.
- Verify bank details by phone if they have changed.
The realistic choices
Walk the site and verify
Always. Photos dated and filed.
Independent valuation
For larger sums, a surveyor's sign-off is cheap insurance.
What good looks like
- Payment matched to a milestone in the contract
- Dated photos in your documents for every stage paid
Questions worth asking
- Does this match what has actually been completed?
- Are materials on site or already installed?
From real projects
Paid for the plastering twice
A homeowner approved payments from a phone in a hurry without walking the site. Two stages overlapped and one area of plastering was included in both. The overpayment of £4,200 was only found at final account and took months to recover.
The lesson: Ten minutes with the schedule and a camera, every single time.
Putting it into practice
What this decision should leave behind
The steps to work through, the paperwork worth keeping and the questions to send your builder today.
- · Inspect before you pay
- · Check the arithmetic
- · Pay the company, on an invoice
- · Template: Stage payment approval
- · Paperwork: Invoices for every stage
- · Paperwork: Dated photographs at each stage