Running the Business · Part 3
Contracts and Getting Paid
19 lessons
The home improvement contract with every required notice, the deposit cap that CSLB cites most, change orders, the 20-day notice, mechanics liens, collections, and three cases where a contractor lost money on paper before losing it on the job.
Lessons in this module
- 1The home improvement contract (B&P 7159): every required element, the exact notices, and the three-day right to cancel 14m
- 2The deposit cap: $1,000 or 10 percent, whichever is less, and progress payments that cannot exceed the work. CSLB's most common citation 10m
- 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 11m
- 4Subcontracts with GCs: the twelve clauses to read, what to strike, and what to negotiate 12m
- 5Change orders: written, signed, before the work. Every time. Why verbal ones end in CSLB complaints 10m
- 6Mechanics liens I: the 20-day preliminary notice. Miss it, lose your rights 11m
- 7Mechanics liens II: recording deadlines, the 90-day foreclosure clock, the four statutory release forms, stop payment notices, and payment bonds on public work 14m
- 8Collections: demand letter, lien, small claims, attorney. When each is worth it, and the one thing that makes all of them impossible 12m
- 9Taking payment: cards, ACH, checks, cash, financing partners, and getting every dollar into the right account 10m
- 10Case: the job that went unpaid. Where the contractor lost lien rights and how to have kept them 10m
- 11Case: the deposit that became a citation 8m
- 12Case: the change order that was never written 9m
- 13Template: the home improvement contract, with every B&P 7159 notice verbatim 12m
- 14Template: the service and repair contract (B&P 7159.10), one page, with the notices verbatim 8m
- 15Template: the change order, one page, signed before the work 5m
- 16Template: the 20-day preliminary notice, with the proof-of-notice declaration 6m
- 17Template: the four statutory lien waiver and release forms (Civil Code 8132 to 8138), verbatim 8m
- 18Template: the demand letter, homeowner version and general contractor version 5m
- 19Template: the subcontract review checklist. Twelve clauses, three boxes each 6m
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