Construction contract: rules of conclusion, sample, advice

Recommendation points

• Choosing a contractor
• The life of the contractor company
• Analysis of the cost of repair and construction work
• Contractor reputation
• Availability of licenses
• How to draw up a construction contract
• Important terms of the work contract
• Price of work under a work contract
• The procedure for accepting work performed and their quality
• Punishment for non-compliance with the agreement
• Rights and obligations of the contractor and the customer
• Cancellation procedure
• Attraction of subcontractors
• Guarantee period
• How to avoid unnecessary costs for a customer
• Rising cost of materials
• Property damage by workers

A clearly drawn up construction contract is a reliable guarantee that all work will be carried out by the contractor with high quality, on time and without unpleasant surprises for the customer. About the nuances of drawing up such an agreement, as well as the rules for choosing a construction company, Our site Soviets.ru will tell in this article.

Choosing a contractor

Conducting construction work by responsible and qualified contractors will help the customer save a lot of time, effort and nerves. The only question is how to find such people. There are a number of criteria that you need to pay attention to when choosing a construction company.

The life of the contractor company

If a company has been on the market for several months, the likelihood that it will soon disappear with the customer’s money or will perform its duties carelessly increases dramatically. Therefore, it is imperative to find out how long they have existed (it is better to give preference to firms operating on the market for at least several years) and familiarize yourself with the portfolio of completed projects, reviews of real customers.

Analysis of the cost of repair and construction work

It will not be superfluous to call a number of construction firms before entering into an agreement and find out what are the prices for the planned work. This will help to find out their average market price and understand if the amount that the contractor is asking for their services is adequate.

Contractor reputation

You can look for reviews of the contractor company in various specialized forums and sites on the Internet. Of course, laudatory reviews can be customized, and bad ratings are the result of black PR of competitors, but still it’s better than not knowing anything at all about the people you trust to carry out construction, installation or repair work.

Availability of licenses

Russian legislation prohibits many types of construction, installation, design and finishing work without a license. You can get them only if the specialists working in the company’s staff have the appropriate education, equipment and tools to carry out these actions. Therefore, the availability of licenses is another guarantee that professionals will undertake the construction..

How to draw up a construction contract

Surely the company that the customer contacts already has a developed standard construction contract, but it may contain various provisions that are disadvantageous to the customer, so you need to carefully analyze the agreement and, if any points raise suspicions, suggest changing them or adding their.

Important terms of the work contract

According to the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the important conditions, without which the contract is considered non-concluded, are:

• The subject of the contract is the actions that the contractor undertakes to perform (for example, conducting communications, major repairs, building a house, etc.) and the address at which they will be performed. The best option is not only mentioning the ultimate goal of the contractor’s actions in the agreement, but also making a complete list of planned works in a separate estimate, which will indicate their names and price (can be done as an annex to the contract).
• Deadline – when the planned work will be started by the customer, and when it will be completed. You should also make sure that a schedule of all planned work is attached to the agreement, and also the responsibility for failure to complete certain stages of work on time is announced. This allows the customer to easily control the actions of the contractor.

Price of work under a work contract

Although this condition is not required by law, it must be reflected in the agreement. It is most convenient for both parties to the agreement when it is indicated that payment is made not after the final completion of construction, but at the end of each stage of work specified in the estimate. This encourages the contractor to meet the planned deadlines exactly, and the customer to pay on time for each completed stage of construction..

The procedure for accepting work performed and their quality

In order to avoid misunderstandings between the parties to the agreement in the future, it is necessary that the construction contract contains a clause on the mandatory signing of an acceptance certificate after the completion of each construction stage. It is worth making sure that the form of the act is attached to the agreement, which will be signed by the parties.

A very slippery point of agreement is the definition of the quality of work. The most acceptable option for the customer is to search the Internet for SNIPs and GOSTs, which establish the requirements for carrying out the work he needs, and propose to add a clause to the agreement according to which the quality of the work of the performers is determined on the basis of these documents.

Punishment for non-compliance with the agreement

The indication of penalties, fines and forfeits that are imposed on the parties to the contract in the event of default by them, is an additional guarantee that the agreement will not be violated.

Usually, construction contracts provide for the responsibility of the contractor for violation of the terms of work. As a rule, this is a forfeit, which is calculated from the estimated cost. But it is very important to make sure that the agreement provides for the accrual of a forfeit for each day of delay in the obligation..

For example, if the estimated cost is 3 million rubles, and the liability for violation of the terms of work is 0.1% of this amount, then the contractor can, with a clear conscience, pay the customer 3000 rubles and stop working altogether. But if such an amount of forfeit is charged per day, then even a few days of downtime will cause a significant loss to the contractor, so it will be simply unprofitable for him not to meet the deadline.

As a rule, the agreement states that the customer is responsible for the violation of the payment deadlines. It is best if the forfeit or fine that he will have to pay is deducted from the value of the unpaid work, and not from the entire cost of the contractor’s services..

In some construction contracts, you can find a clause according to which the contractor is not responsible for damage to property that is not the subject of the contract. In practice, this means that if, for example, a construction company was entrusted with the installation of communications and, through the fault of its employees, a fire started, the company will not compensate the customer for any material damage. After all, according to the contract, they were responsible only for communications, and not for the entire building. Therefore, if such a clause is present in the contract, it is necessary to insist on changing it and clearly reflecting the responsibility of the company’s employees for damage to any property of the customer..

The established responsibility for the refusal of any party to the contract to sign the acceptance certificate for each stage of work will also not be superfluous.

Rights and obligations of the contractor and the customer

The list of actions that the parties have the right or are obliged to do may in some cases occupy several pages of the agreement. Therefore, it is simply impossible to provide a list of all the necessary conditions that the customer needs to pay attention to in the format of this article..

The main thing to remember is that any phrases about rights and obligations do not mean anything if they are described in general words and the contract does not establish any responsibility for their violation.

For example, the customer is obliged to pay the contractor the amount of money due to him under the contract, otherwise the contractor has the right to retain the equipment, materials and other property belonging to the customer until the customer pays the agreed amounts in full. Or the contractor is obliged to warn the customer and immediately stop the work if it detects the unsuitability or poor quality of building materials, equipment, technical or design documentation. Otherwise, the responsibility to eliminate construction defects arising from the above reasons falls on the contractor, and so on..

Cancellation procedure

A clear regulation of the conditions under which each of the parties can refuse to fulfill their obligations is an extremely important part of any work contract. These conditions are reflected in chapter 37 of the Civil Code. It is enough to make sure that they are present in the contract and the agreement does not contain any other conditions of refusal that would infringe on the rights of the customer.

Attraction of subcontractors

Russian law does not prevent the contractor from engaging subcontractors for the planned work, unless this is expressly prohibited in the contract. That is, if the customer fears that the construction company will attract third-party contractors to carry out the necessary work and does not want this, he must insist on the inclusion of a clause in the agreement containing a direct prohibition on such actions.

Guarantee period

Often, the shortcomings of the work carried out by the performers do not appear immediately, but after a while, when the term of the contract has long expired. Therefore, it is worth insisting on the inclusion of a clause on the warranty period in the agreement, during which the contractor is obliged to eliminate all deficiencies identified by the customer. For example, within 36 months after signing the acceptance certificate of works. It is also important to clearly describe the procedure for carrying out warranty repairs and the contractor’s responsibility for failure to fulfill this obligation..

For example, if the contractor in writing refused to carry out warranty repairs or within 10 days did not respond to the customer’s request to eliminate the identified deficiencies, the latter has the right to hire third parties to eliminate them. In this case, the contractor is obliged to reimburse the customer for the costs incurred, and the warranty period is extended for the period of elimination of deficiencies.

How to avoid unnecessary costs for a customer

Rising cost of materials

Contractors often demand an increase in payments for their services on the basis that construction materials or equipment have risen in price since the signing of the contract. There is no need to be led to these provocations, because any serious organization engaged in construction, in advance includes all possible risks in the cost of its services.

To avoid such situations, you need to make sure that, according to the contract, the price of the contractor’s services is firm (cannot be changed over time). If the contractor insists on a floating price of work (that is, it can change over time, depending on the circumstances), it is worth taking care of entering into the contract the conditions under which it can be changed. For example, in the event of a rise in the price of building materials by more than 30% from the moment of the conclusion of the contract.

Property damage by workers

No matter what qualified contractors carry out construction work, there is always a risk of property damage. In addition, there is a risk of damage to the customer’s neighbors. For example, a situation: during construction work, the performers accidentally damaged engineering communications in a neighboring area.

To avoid such problems, you can insure your property for the duration of construction or renovation..

For example, the company “AlfaStrakhovanie” offers its clients insurance programs “At least Flood! – House “and” Good Neighbors! “, The design of which will allow the customer to protect themselves from damage to their property and damage to neighbors during repair work.

Below you can download the forms of standard construction contracts, which you can use as a sample if necessary.

Contract for the construction of a real estate object – download in .doc format

Construction and installation work contract – download in .doc format

Contract for the construction of a cottage – download in .doc format

Construction contract (standard) – download in .doc format