Never trust a contractor who…

[Corbin Lane]

What are some red flags you’ve noticed when hiring contractors? What are some of the nasty games they’ve played with you?

Based on a few bad experiences, here are some that give me pause, especially when there are more than one of them:

- Cases out my financial situation - asking questions (usually early on in the conversation) that seem to be aimed at figuring out how much money I have.

- Asks for a deposit up front. This can be for legitimate reasons but also, as I’ve learned the hard way, gives the contractor way too much leverage over the situation and opens the door for all kinds of abuses.

- Pressures hard for a commitment immediately after giving an estimate.

- Pushes hard for scope creep, trying to enlarge the initial project commitment. If someone is trying to swindle you they don’t expect to be doing more business with you on subsequent jobs. My preference is to start with the smallest possible project and see how an entire project cycle goes before committing to the next one.

- Attempts to obtain commitment or begin work without providing a complete written description of the work to be done, including specifications and dimensions of things to be built. I had one contractor keep trying to raise the price, claiming that his (ridiculous) understanding of what was to be done was different from mine.

- Displays any negative emotion whatsoever, particularly anger or aggression - no matter how subtle. I’ve had contractors get scary with me and act physically threatening because I failed to recognize this early enough. At the slightest hint of this I will carefully remove them from the job.

- Asks to use any of your tools or household items. Or worse yet, does so without asking.

- Acts disrespectful at any point. Failure to respond to this has resulted in escalation to more aggressive behaviors.

- Wants to start work immediately, and seems uninterested in the details.

- Requires payment in cash. This is a huge red flag and I now am careful to be upfront that payment will be made by check or credit card only.

Again, I think that many of these things are excusable individually but the more flags involved the more consideration is warranted.