You know who you are contracting with
Why — act while you have leverage
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.
What to look at
- Full legal name of the contracting party
- Address and telephone number on the document
- Registration or tax number
- The payee name matching the contracting name
How to check it yourself
Check the document names the contracting party in full, with an address, a telephone number, and a registration or tax number. Match the name on the agreement to the name on the bank account you are asked to pay into. A different name on the account than on the contract is worth stopping for.
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
- The agreement does not contradict itself
- GST is stated, and you know who pays it
- 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