The agreement does not contradict itself
Why — act while you have leverage
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.
What to look at
- The introduction and the scope section describing the same work
- Milestone amounts totalling the contract sum
- Quantities in the schedule matching the drawings
- A clause saying which document governs if two disagree
How to check it yourself
Read the scope section against the introduction, the payment schedule against the scope, and the drawings against both. Where two places disagree, ask which governs and get the answer written in. Add the payment milestone amounts up - more than one agreement had a schedule that did not total the contract sum.
Where this comes from: Kolo review of Kerala construction quotations and agreements (established trade practice)
More construction agreement checks before you sign
- Agreement check passed
- Contractor background verified
- Site handover checklist agreed
- Worker-welfare rules applicability checked
- GST treatment understood before signing
- The payment schedule keeps money back until the end
- GST is stated, and you know who pays it
- You know who you are contracting with
- Price escalation has a limit you can calculate
- Foundation extras cannot be open-ended
- Curing is the contractor's job, in writing
- The arbitrator is not chosen by the contractor alone
- There is a warranty, and it has a length
- Worker safety stays with the contractor
- Signing for a stage does not sign away everything after it
- There is a way to settle a dispute short of court
- Cancellation terms are not written by one side
- Nobody else builds your house without you knowing
- No blank spaces, no missing dates
- Money goes to the company, not to a person
- You can ask where the money went
- Delay has a consequence for both sides
- The quotation is attached to the agreement
- Force majeure is not a blanket excuse
The whole stage: Construction agreement checks before you sign