Name: Diamond Certified Experts: Legal Limits on Project Deposits
Uploaded: 2015-11-20T17:42:55Z
Channel: Diamond Certified Resource

GILROY — Host, Sarah Rutan: If your contractor asks for a deposit in advance of your building project, it’s important to know the legal limitations to this request. Today we’re in Gilroy with Diamond Certified Expert Contributor Richard Gallardo of RG Builders to learn more.
Diamond Certified Expert Contributor, Richard Gallardo: Hi, I&#8217;d like to talk to you about deposits for projects. In the state of California, the most a contractor can collect at the time of signing a contract is $1000 or 10%, whichever is less. So on a job over $1000, a contractor could collect $1000. On a job under $1000, the most he can collect is 10%. Those rules are fixed. They are the law. There is no 50% down. There is no 25% up front. It&#8217;s $1000 upon signing a contract.
Once you&#8217;ve signed that contract and the contractor starts working on your home, then he can ask you for more money. Once equipment has arrived, people are working on the house, demolition&#8217;s being done, then he can ask you for another check. But always, at the signing of a contract, it&#8217;s $1000 max for any job over $1000. Or 10%, whichever is less, according to the state law.
Host, Sarah Rutan: To learn more from local top-rated companies, visit our Diamond Certified Expert Reports at experts.diamondcertified.org.

Video: Legal Limits on Project Deposits

Richard Gallardo, Owner of Richard Gallardo Inc., a Diamond Certified company, gives some helpful tips on if your contractor asks for a deposit in advance of your building project, it?s important to know the legal limitations to this request.

Legal Limits on Project Deposits from Richard Gallardo of Richard Gallardo Inc.

with Richard Gallardo of {BR} RG Builders

Host, Sarah Rutan: If your contractor asks for a deposit in advance of your building project, it’s important to know the legal limitations to this request. Today we’re in Gilroy with Diamond Certified Expert Contributor Richard Gallardo of RG Builders to learn more.

Diamond Certified Expert Contributor, Richard Gallardo: Hi, I’d like to talk to you about deposits for projects. In the state of California, the most a contractor can collect at the time of signing a contract is $1000 or 10%, whichever is less. So on a job over $1000, a contractor could collect $1000. On a job under $1000, the most he can collect is 10%. Those rules are fixed. They are the law. There is no 50% down. There is no 25% up front. It’s $1000 upon signing a contract.

Once you’ve signed that contract and the contractor starts working on your home, then he can ask you for more money. Once equipment has arrived, people are working on the house, demolition’s being done, then he can ask you for another check. But alw

Diamond Certified Experts: Legal Limits on Project Deposits

Considerations for Hiring a Contractor

Video: Assessing a Construction Bid

When going over a bid from a prospective contractor, there are a few things that you should keep an eye out for. Today, we ring Gilroy with Diamond Certified expert contributor, Richard Gallardo, RG Builders, to learn more.

Hi, I'd like to talk to you today about getting a bid from a contractor, or what should be a professional bid. But you should look for what I would look for in a professional bid. 

Is an itemized bid with all the different items that you're going to want done on your home. The other thing that's really important is that it be legible, preferably printed out on a piece of paper by a computer so that you can understand exactly what's going on and what those items are. 

Third would be a total included. You should have a total including profit and overhead if that's included in their costs. Profit and overheads are always included in the cost. If it's not shown to you at the bottom of the page, it slipped in within the numbers so that might be a question you want to ask. 

And lastly, for an approximate time or duration of the job and how long it will take. Those are usually the four things that I would look for in obtaining a bid from a general contractor. To learn more from local top-rated companies, visit our Diamond Certified expert reports at experts.diamondcertified.org.

Video: Assessing Contractor Referrals

When going over a bid from a prospective contractor, there are a few things that you should keep an eye out for. Today, we bring Gilroy with Diamond Certified expert contributor Richard Gallardo, RG Builders, to learn more.

Hi, I want to talk to you about referrals. Referrals are important in the sense of you get a good feel for the contractor that way. An important thing to look for is a couple of long-term clients, preferably clients that the contractor's done work for for over a decade. It's always nice. Secondly, would be clients that you've just started the project; you're going to get a really good feel from those people as to whether the contractor shows up and does his work and how his employees do their work. 

Thirdly, would be projects that the contractor's in the middle of, usually about the middle of the road. You know if any major problems have come up, you're going to -- you, if you call the referral, the referral be honest with you and let you know, gosh, you know that he handled this this way or he didn't handle this very well.

And then finally, the most importantly is projects that have just been completed recently, preferably within three to six months. Those people are going to give you an honest opinion of the contractor and how their work was done and whether they were completely satisfied by that contractor.

To learn more from local top-rated companies, visit our Diamond Certified expert reports at experts.diamondcertified.org.

Below is the video transcript. Please add full stops, commas and paragraphs wherever required by analyzing the sentiments.

if your contractor asks for a deposit in advance of your building project, it's important to know the legal limitations to this request. Today we're in Gilroy with Diamond Certified expert contributor Richard Gallardo of RG Builders to learn more.

Hi, I'd like to talk to you about deposits for projects in the state of California. The most the contractor can collect at the time of signing a contract is a thousand dollars or ten percent, whichever is less. So on a job over a thousand dollars, a contractor could collect a thousand dollars. On a job under a thousand dollars, the most he can collect is ten percent. Those rules are fixed; they are the law. There is no fifty percent down, there's no twenty-five percent upfront. It's a thousand dollars upon signing a contract.

Once you've signed that contract and the contractor starts working on your home, then he can ask you for more money. Once equipment has arrived, people are working on the house, demolition is being done, then he can ask you for another check, but always at the signing of a contract, it's a thousand dollars max for any job over a thousand bucks or ten percent, whichever is less, according to the state law.

To learn more from local top-rated companies, visit our Diamond Certified expert reports at experts.diamondcertified.org.

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