Payment Plan Question

[Brenna]

Regarding the payment plan, is it standard to require final payment on the day that the pool is plastered?

I read here (and completely agree) that we should reserve final payment until the pool is completely finished. To me, filled and all equipment working would be completely finished but one potential PB looked at me like I was crazy.

Thoughts?

 

[AimeeH]

Hhhhmmmmm. I don't remember how we did it. I know we made two payments to our builder. 50% up front and 50% upon completion. Ours was an an dependant pool builder and not a large company and we loved his service. I'm thinking we paid the final payment after he had the concrete decking put in (about a month after the pool was filled?). I just don't recall for sure.

 

[Melt In The Sun]

He may look at you like you're crazy, but you're not. You may not be able to get much (<10%) as a final payment, but it's worth standing your ground on it.

 

[swimcmp]

As a builder the contract is written by lawyers to appease lawyers. I don't budge since it sets a legal precedent that can come back to bite me. In my contract here it says once the homeowner gets in the pool that constitutes the pool as finished, and all payments are due.

 

[jro33176]

Every pool builder we spoke to had the final payment due after pool is plastered. I questioned this and no one would budge on it. One pool builder was willing to change it to after final inspection. I wonder if anyone has been able to negotiate a change in payment schedule and how they did it. I wasn't able to.

 

[GNoles]

We are just starting to build ours. Our final payment is due when the pool is completed and they have walked us through their initial pool school


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Flatlander]

My PB agreed to 7 equal payments: after dig, after steel/plumb, after gunite, after tile/coping, after decking, after equip on pad, and after plastered/filled. Any problems later should be covered under warranty. IMHO, the money should not get ahead of the work but the opposite seems to be the norm in the pool building world. It's all negotiable but some PB will not discuss. I waited until I found one that would.

 

[Northrider23]

Same here. We scheduled pmts according to work being done, much like flatlander explains above and negotiated a final pmt of 15% upon completion, but we are also building 3 pools with the same builder (no me directly but 2 of my friends as well). We all narrowed down our favorite PB and then picked one we would all go with. Our pmt schedule is as follows

10% Mobilization Deposit
20% upon completion of excavation
25% upon completion of concrete Shell
10% upon completion of coping and tile
20% upon completion of deck
15% upon completion of work