House construction · Stage 4 of 14: Your agreement

Construction agreement checks before you sign in Kerala

By the Kolo house construction team · Updated 9 September 2026

This is the last moment you hold the leverage. After the advance is paid, every unresolved item becomes a negotiation you conduct from the weaker side.

The checks at this stage (25)

Agreement check passed
Payment tied to measurable work, a delay clause, a defect liability period, warranty terms, controlled brand substitution and a bounded escalation clause - verified present before you sign, while asking still costs nothing.
Contractor background verified
GST registration confirmed, at least two past projects visited or their owners spoken to, and current project load asked and recorded. Over-committed contractors are the top cause of stalled sites.
Site handover checklist agreed
Benchmark level marked, temporary power and water agreed - including whose cost they are, a classic quote gap - storage location and access confirmed. Ten minutes now prevents the first week of disputes.
Worker-welfare rules applicability checked
Registration applies from 10 workers, with an exemption for smaller own-residence builds. Know which side of the line your project sits on, and whose responsibility it is in the agreement - before a demand arrives as a surprise.
GST treatment understood before signing
A pure-labour contract for a single home can be exempt; a full works contract is taxed - and as the owner you cannot claim the credit either way. The contracting model you chose changes the tax picture by a material slice of the project.
The payment schedule keeps money back until the end
Payment schedules are the part of an agreement most often written in the contractor's favour, and the least often read. Several released almost the whole contract before the house was finished - one left under one per cent for handover and every defect after it.
The agreement does not contradict itself
A contradiction inside one document is not a typo - it is the clause the other party will rely on. Introductions promising a full turnkey scope sat above scope sections that priced a shell; column counts differed between two sections of the same quote.
GST is stated, and you know who pays it
An eighteen per cent tax that is not mentioned is not an eighteen per cent saving. Some agreements were silent on it entirely, on sums where the tax ran to lakhs; one claimed an exemption on a legal basis that does not support it.
You know who you are contracting with
An agreement is only worth what you can enforce. Documents arrived with no address, no telephone, no registration and no tax number - which leaves nobody to pursue if the work stops.
Price escalation has a limit you can calculate
"Rates may change with the market" is not a clause, it is an open cheque. Escalation wording appeared with no base price list, no published index and no ceiling - which means the contract sum is whatever it turns out to be.
Foundation extras cannot be open-ended
Foundation depth is the one cost nobody can fix before digging - which is exactly why it gets written as an uncapped extra. Several agreements charged for depth beyond a stated figure with no rate, no baseline measurement and no soil test anywhere in the scope.
Curing is the contractor's job, in writing
Concrete gains most of its strength in the first two weeks and only if it is kept wet. Agreements that push curing onto the owner transfer the single cheapest thing that determines how strong the house is - and one did it while offering a fifteen-year structural guarantee.
The arbitrator is not chosen by the contractor alone
If a dispute goes to arbitration and the contractor picked the arbitrator, you have lost before it starts. This was the most serious recurring clause in the agreements reviewed.
There is a warranty, and it has a length
Several agreements carried no warranty of any kind. Without one, every defect that appears after handover is yours to pay for, however soon it appears.
Worker safety stays with the contractor
A clause making you responsible for the safety of workers on site transfers a liability that can exceed the value of the house. The people on site are the contractor's workers, engaged and paid by the contractor.
Signing for a stage does not sign away everything after it
Some agreements make a stage completion certificate extinguish all future claims about that work. You sign to release a payment and lose the right to raise a defect that only appears months later.
There is a way to settle a dispute short of court
Agreements with no dispute clause at all leave litigation as the only route - slow, expensive, and out of proportion to most construction disagreements.
Cancellation terms are not written by one side
Where the settlement on cancellation is decided by the contractor alone, leaving a bad job becomes as expensive as staying in it.
Nobody else builds your house without you knowing
Unrestricted sub-contracting means the firm you chose, checked and trusted can hand the work to someone you have never met, with no change to the price you pay.
No blank spaces, no missing dates
A contract with the date, the permit number or the party details left blank is not finished, and blanks get filled in later by whoever holds the document.
Money goes to the company, not to a person
Where payment is directed to a named individual who is not identified as the proprietor or an authorised signatory, the money leaves your contract. If the work stops, you are pursuing a person rather than the party you contracted with.
You can ask where the money went
Clauses barring the owner from "interfering in financial matters" sit oddly in an agreement funded entirely by the owner, and they block the questions that catch a problem early.
Delay has a consequence for both sides
Agreements commonly price your late payment and say nothing about their late delivery. A one-way clause is not a timeline, it is a penalty.
The quotation is attached to the agreement
An agreement that refers to a quotation without attaching it leaves the scope open to whichever version is produced later.
Force majeure is not a blanket excuse
A broadly drafted force majeure clause can cover ordinary supply problems and ordinary rain, which in Kerala is most of the year.

Consider and compare: the decisions here

Payment schedule shape

Milestone-linked, monthly, or a hybrid. Money should follow verified work - the structure you pick decides whether it can.

MilestoneMost common

Pick it when: You want money to move only against verified completion.

Costs about the same

For

Payment follows verified completion
Maps cleanly to app verification

Against

Needs unambiguous stage definitions in the agreement
Arguments possible over when a stage is done

Monthly

Pick it when: Cash-flow predictability matters and you'll watch progress weekly.

Costs about the same

For

Predictable cash flow
Simple to administer

Against

Payment can outrun progress
Watch spend-versus-stage continuously

Hybrid

Pick it when: You want both, and will make the agreement text match exactly.

Costs about the same

For

Balances both
Advance recovery can be spread

Against

Complexity - agreement text must match exactly
Harder to audit at each release

Changing your mind later: Renegotiating the schedule after signing happens from the weaker side - expect concessions elsewhere, and 1-2 weeks of stalled work while it settles.

Who checks the work

Architect visits, an independent engineer, or yourself with the app's checklists. Decided now and written down, or it never quite happens.

Architect

Pick it when: Design intent matters and the visit count is written into the fee.

Costs about the same

For

Design intent protected
The mind that drew it checks it

Against

Visit frequency often under-specified - fix the number now
Visits are not daily presence

Engineer

Pick it when: You want dedicated owner-side eyes at every milestone.

Usually costs more

For

Dedicated owner-side eyes
Independent of both designer and builder

Against

Added cost
Quality varies - check references

Yourself

Pick it when: You're nearby, available, and will follow the app's checklists.

Usually costs less

For

No added cost
The app gives per-stage checklists

Against

Depends on your availability
Not for remote owners

Changing your mind later: Adding supervision mid-build costs the same fee with less benefit - the concealed early stages are already closed - plus a week to onboard anyone new.

What good work looks like

What a complete agreement contains

Clauses you can verify present with page numbers: payment tied to measurable stages, a delay clause, a defect liability period, warranties including waterproofing, controlled brand substitution, bounded escalation, a priced extra-work mechanism, termination and dispute, and taxes stated in words.

Good signs

Each clause found and page-marked in your copy
The spec sheet and BOQ attached as annexures
Taxes stated inclusive or exclusive, in words

Warning signs

A warranty living only in the quote, not the agreement
An escalation clause with no ceiling
Extra-work pricing left to future goodwill

Indian Contract Act 1872

A defensible payment schedule

Every release names the measurable completion that unlocks it, the early share is not loaded ahead of the work, and the schedule reads identically in the clause and in the annexure. If a milestone cannot be verified by looking at the site, it cannot defend a payment.

Good signs

Every milestone naming what must exist before it pays
Stage definitions specific enough to admit no argument
The schedule summing exactly to the contract amount

Warning signs

Percentages tied to dates instead of work
The bulk of the money payable before roof level
Clause and annexure telling two different schedules

A variation clause that protects you

Extras are priced before they happen, not negotiated after: a written instruction for every change, rates anchored to the BOQ where lines exist, and a named method for items the BOQ does not carry. Verbal extras settled at the final bill are the oldest dispute in construction.

Good signs

Written variation orders required for every change
Rates referenced back to the BOQ lines
A named pricing method for non-BOQ items

Warning signs

Verbal extras appearing at the final bill
Market rate written with no anchor to anything
Variations silently shifting the completion date

The clause-presence register, in full

The complete list the checker reads a labour or composite construction agreement against. Presence noticed, absence noticed, nothing advised — the phrasing rule above governs every line. Take the absences to a qualified advocate before signature.

Good signs

Parties identified with addresses, and the property/site identified
Recitals setting the context, and the accepted quotation incorporated by reference
Scope of work stated, with drawings named as part of the agreement
Exclusions as a closed list, not an open-ended one
A written change-order / variation mechanism
Contract price stated once, consistently, figures matching words
Milestone-based payment schedule; owner-borne costs listed
Price-escalation terms bounded; late-payment terms stated for both sides
Commencement and completion dates; extension-of-time rules; liquidated damages for delay
Material quality standards and workmanship standards named
Structural warranty and defect liability period stated (commonly 5 years / 12 months — trade practice, not statute)
Waterproofing and anti-termite warranties where those works are in scope
Contractor's insurance; safety and labour responsibility; indemnity; design responsibility; sub-contracting terms
Force majeure; termination procedure for both sides; handover and completion formalities
Amicable dispute resolution, then arbitration; governing law and jurisdiction
GST treatment stated once and consistently; communication protocol; entire-agreement clause

Kolo Home-Contract Review System v9.22 — mandatory-clause register from 34 reviewed Kerala contracts; Indian Contract Act 1872, Arbitration & Conciliation Act 1996

High-severity patterns observed in reviewed contracts

Each of these appeared in real reviewed Kerala contracts. The checker surfaces the pattern with its clause location and an evidence quote; what follows is a conversation with a qualified advocate, held before signature.

Good signs

Sole arbitrator appointed only by the contractor
Stage-completion certificates that extinguish all future liability
Rates revisable to 'current market' upon owner payment delay
Worker safety made the owner's responsibility
No warranty of any kind, or a post-completion liability-extinguishment clause
No dispute-resolution mechanism at all
Settlement on cancellation determined solely by the contractor
The owner discouraged from engaging an independent architect, engineer or QS
The owner barred from 'interfering in financial matters'
Unrestricted sub-contracting without owner consent
Contract date or regulatory reference fields left blank
GST inclusive in one clause and exclusive in another, within the same contract

Kolo Home-Contract Review System v9.22 — red-flag master, high severity, from 34 reviewed Kerala contracts

The builder-style agreement — a shape seen in real reviewed contracts

A recurring shape in real Kerala agreements: price, timeline and the material specification are written carefully — figure and words matching, brands named, stage-wise payments laid out — while every clause that protects the OWNER is simply absent. The document reads complete because the commercial half is complete. The register above is how you notice the other half is missing.

Good signs

A bilingual agreement read as ONE document: scope and payments in one language, specifications in another is common — have the whole thing read together, because the halves must not contradict
Owner-borne items priced before signing: water, electricity during construction and site clearing routinely sit with the owner in a clause nobody costs
Escalation clauses read for their trigger: 'material price rise' and 'owner delay' both appeared as open repricing levers in reviewed drafts
Date and reference fields actually filled — reviewed agreements arrived with the day blank
The strong half used as leverage: a contract that names brands and stages precisely shows the drafter CAN be precise — absence of warranty, defect liability, dispute and termination clauses is then a choice to raise, not an oversight to excuse

Aggregated from Kolo contract reviews of real signed and draft agreements (2026) — anonymised

Red flags and money traps

The advance is the leverage you hand over

On the day the advance moves, the balance of power moves with it. Everything unresolved - a vague clause, an unstated warranty, an open exclusion - is negotiated afterwards from the weaker side of the table.

Before paying: Every open point from the quote comparison settled in writing. Then the advance.

The over-committed contractor delay

The top cause of stalled sites is a contractor running too many projects at once. It is also the easiest to screen: ask the current project count, visit two past projects, and talk to their owners without the contractor present.

Ask directly: How many sites are running right now, and which one gets your team when it rains?

Site handover checklist agreed

Confirm before start: benchmark level; temporary electricity and water and WHOSE COST that is, a classic quotation gap that must be pinned in the agreement; material storage and labour shed; access for material vehicles; and site security.

Trade practice, not a code: Trade practice on Indian sites, rather than a published standard.

The payment schedule keeps money back until the end

Add the milestones up as percentages and look at two numbers: how much is due before any work starts, and how much is left at handover. Money paid ahead of verified work is leverage you no longer have. Then check the last milestone is tied to handover itself, not to plastering or to some stage before the finishes.