re: Is it standard to pay 1/3 upfront for a fence?

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My neighbor, who has never put a fence in his entire life, had his brother come help him fence in the back yard. I'd guess it's about 100-150 feet of fence at most. Took him 3-4 days

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Yeah and that's all they said this would take, but they keep coming with excuses about being short of help and shite like that. One guy quit, 2 are on vacation, yada yada yada. It's an old man and his son plus some other guys.

never pay money upfront for a job......never

I would give him until the end of the week to get done and if it doesn't happen then pay him for work in place and hire someone else or just do it yourself. Sounds like the hard part is already done.

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Is it standard to pay 1/3 upfront for a fence?

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For a reputable contractor.

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Excuse after excuse. It's been a month since they first started

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But this makes me say no way.

should take 2 days. Tell him if he wants to get paid to finish the fence. It shouldn't take any time at all to finish. Maybe a day.

If you did not agree to them getting paid before the job is done I would tell him that he needs to finish and you would be glad to pay him.

If you had hired the right people, you'd only be paying 1/3 the price you're paying now.....and in pesos.

And the job would be done in less than a day

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never pay money upfront for a job......never

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I had a drunk contractor show up at my house one evening, He wanted half the money. It was for a roofing job. He had already taken shingles off the roof. He wanted to go over the old torn up felt, and I said bullshite, either you put in new felt or you're off the job. He left, got pissed, went and got drunk, came back at 9:30 at night demanding money and upsetting my wife and my dog. Really pissed me off that he upset my dog.

We had never agreed on upfront money and I had told him that I was not going to finance his business. Either he was in business or he was pretending to be a business.

Anyway, I called the cops and had his arse taken off my property. He yelled and cussed, saying he was going to come back and remove the materials. The cop advised this guy that he'll be arrested for theft if he did that. Then the policeman asked me, "Well have you paid for them?" I said, "Is a civil matter any of your business?" He said, well, no, not really. I just hate to see someone get arrested for just being stupid. I said, "oh, you mean like, right now?" And that's when I pointed to the guy taking off in his truck. He was so drunk it didn't even register that he could get popped for a DWI. The cop took off after him and pulled him over two blocks away and arrested him!

The next morning, the roofer's toothless wife showed up with his crew. She was apologetic, blaming the alcohol, telling me that her husband was still in jail and promising that she'd finish the job that day if I'd pay for the completed project at the end of the day. I told her to take their shingles and get off my property. She wanted to be paid for what they'd already done and said she wanted $2700 for the labor and felt. I laughed in her face and told her I was getting another company to come in and finish the job and anything left over between what the second contractor charges and what her husband had contracted for, I would pay them the difference and if they didn't like it they could take me to court. And when the job was done I did pay him that balance, but it was for less than half what she had asked for.