Ten questions to ask before signing with a builder

Almost nobody asks these questions, and not out of carelessness: when you do not know the trade, you do not know what to ask. These ten cover practically everything that later turns into a problem.

They are not questions born of mistrust. A good builder answers them in ten minutes without taking offence. In fact, a builder is grateful for a client who knows what they are buying, because that is the client who does not change their mind halfway through.

1. Who signs the structural drawings and the soil survey?

The answer should be: a civil engineer, and here is the name. Colombian law reserves those two signatures to civil engineers, and whoever signs is legally answerable. If the answer is "we do that ourselves" with no name attached, or "I will find you somebody to sign", that last one is a practice the law expressly prohibits.

2. Is the price fixed, cost-plus, or trade by trade?

All three are legitimate, and the difference lies in who absorbs the overrun:

• —Fixed price: the builder absorbs it, and prices that risk in accordingly.
• —Cost-plus management, known here as administración delegada: you absorb it, and in exchange you see the invoices. Watch the incentive: if the fee is a percentage of the cost, whoever manages the works earns more when the works cost more.
• —Trade by trade: you absorb it, and the coordination between contractors as well.

What should not happen is that nobody can tell you which of the three it is.

3. What does the price NOT include?

This is more useful than asking what it does include. The answer should name, without hesitating, the soil survey, the technical designs, the curaduría charges, the delineation tax levied on building work, the utility connections and a contingency.

4. How are additional quantities of work handled?

It is the question that saves the most money and almost nobody asks. On every job, quantities appear that were not foreseen. What has to be agreed in advance is who approves them, at what unit rate and on what document.

Without that rule, every additional quantity is a negotiation you enter at a disadvantage, because the works have already started.

5. What is the programme, and what happens if it slips?

A programme with no consequence attached is an intention. There have to be dates, verifiable milestones and an agreed consequence for delay attributable to the builder. And the other way round too: what happens if the delay is yours, for not deciding in time.

6. Who runs the site, and are they there every day?

The person who quotes is not necessarily the person who will be there. Ask for the name of whoever runs the site, how often they attend, and who decides when they are not there.

7. How are quality and materials controlled?

The answer should mention laboratory testing: concrete strength, compaction of the ground, quality of the reinforcement steel. And who pays for the tests and who keeps the results.

Ask as well whether the specified materials may be substituted, and who authorises a substitution. Something always gets substituted on site; the difference is whether you find out before or after.

8. What insurance bonds are in place?

Performance, stability of the works, wages and employment benefits, and third-party liability. Ask for copies, not for a mention of them.

9. What warranty is given, and when does it start running?

On new housing of five or more units, the builder or the seller must cover financial loss for ten years counted from the certificado técnico de ocupación (the technical certificate of occupancy), not from the deed of sale and not from the handover of the keys. It applies to projects whose permit application was filed after July 2016. The builder’s liability period tool sets out each type of cover and its time limit for your case.

For a single-family house contracted directly, the warranty is whatever is agreed. If it is not agreed, it does not exist.

10. May I speak to two of your clients from three years ago?

From three years ago, not the most recent one. Jobs that have just been handed over all look fine. What you want to know is how the builder responded when a problem turned up after handover, which is when there is no money left in play and only seriousness remains.

A builder with a history gives you those names without thinking twice. Discomfort at this question is, by some margin, the most informative signal of the ten.

And one thing that is not a question

All of the above has to end up in writing. Scope, price, contract type, programme, additional quantities, quality, bonds, warranty. You do not need a twenty-page contract; you need those eight things written down and signed.

Reluctance to put something in writing, from either side, says more than any reference ever will.