Running the Business · Part 3
Template: the demand letter, homeowner version and general contractor version
Two one-page demand letters, one to a homeowner and one to a general contractor, that state the facts, the amount, the deadline, and the exact next step the law provides, in a tone the Rosenthal Act allows and a court will read as fair. Send by certified mail and email at day 10 past due. Most unpaid invoices end here.
What the full lesson covers
- Facts in three sentences, documents attached, amount with interest, a ten-day deadline, and the specific next step by a date you will keep.
- State only what the law provides: a lien within the window, small claims or counsel, the GC's 7108.5 penalty. Never a threat you will not carry out, never a call to their employer or neighbors, never a late-night text.
- Offer a call and a payment plan in one sentence; a cash problem is solved by a schedule, not a lien.
- Keep the certified receipt and the email; the letter is Exhibit B in small claims, after the contract.
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More lessons in Contracts and Getting Paid
- 1The home improvement contract (B&P 7159): every required element, the exact notices, and the three-day right to cancel
- 2The deposit cap: $1,000 or 10 percent, whichever is less, and progress payments that cannot exceed the work. CSLB's most common citation
- 3Service and repair contracts (B&P 7159.10): when the short form applies, what it must say, and how a service call falls out of it
- 4Subcontracts with GCs: the twelve clauses to read, what to strike, and what to negotiate
- 5Change orders: written, signed, before the work. Every time. Why verbal ones end in CSLB complaints
- 6Mechanics liens I: the 20-day preliminary notice. Miss it, lose your rights
- 7Mechanics liens II: recording deadlines, the 90-day foreclosure clock, the four statutory release forms, stop payment notices, and payment bonds on public work
- 8Collections: demand letter, lien, small claims, attorney. When each is worth it, and the one thing that makes all of them impossible
- 9Taking payment: cards, ACH, checks, cash, financing partners, and getting every dollar into the right account
- 10Case: the job that went unpaid. Where the contractor lost lien rights and how to have kept them
- 11Case: the deposit that became a citation
- 12Case: the change order that was never written
- 13Template: the home improvement contract, with every B&P 7159 notice verbatim
- 14Template: the service and repair contract (B&P 7159.10), one page, with the notices verbatim
- 15Template: the change order, one page, signed before the work
- 16Template: the 20-day preliminary notice, with the proof-of-notice declaration
- 17Template: the four statutory lien waiver and release forms (Civil Code 8132 to 8138), verbatim
- 18Template: the demand letter, homeowner version and general contractor versionYou are here
- 19Template: the subcontract review checklist. Twelve clauses, three boxes each