Running the Business · Part 3
Template: the home improvement contract, with every B&P 7159 notice verbatim
The complete home improvement contract in the order section 7159 requires, with each statutory statement and notice reproduced word for word, the type sizes the statute demands marked in brackets, and blanks for your job. Print it, have an attorney look at it once, and then use it for every residential job over $500 that does not qualify for the service and repair form. A filled-in example for the $2,575 water heater follows the blank so the deposit, the dates, and the notices are shown as they should read.
What the full lesson covers
- The bracketed type sizes are requirements: body 10-point, headings 10-point bold, and the three marked statements plus the cancellation notice in 12-point bold. A form that looks right at the wrong size is non-compliant.
- The right-to-cancel notice must sit immediately next to the buyer's signature and be signed and dated by the buyer; the two Notice of Cancellation forms are attached and detachable.
- Use the five-day notice for a senior citizen and the seven-day notice for repairs after a declared emergency; the three-day notice is not required when the contract was negotiated at your place of business.
- Fill the insurance notices with the true statement and the carrier's name and phone; fill the downpayment at or below $1,000 or 10 percent; tie every progress payment to a described phase.
- Give the customer the signed, dated copy before any work starts. That copy starts their cancellation clock and is your evidence.
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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 verbatimYou are here
- 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 version
- 19Template: the subcontract review checklist. Twelve clauses, three boxes each