Your client won't pay the final payment

When a client holds the whole final payment over a few small items, the fix is to separate the money from the list: finish or price each item, and ask for the rest. Most of the leverage was set by how the contract handled the end of the job.

A handyman described the classic version: the job was finished apart from a handful of punch items, and the customer was holding the entire payment until every one was done to their satisfaction. A general contractor on a larger cost-plus job had it worse. His final invoice was going out months after the work, he'd already given the warranty, and he asked how he could still get the client to pay. He had nothing left to hold.

What to do this week

1. Write the list down with the client. Every item, where it is, what done looks like. Have them confirm it's the whole list. Use the punch list template if you don't have one.
2. Put a value on each item. If the list is worth $400 to fix, there's no honest reason to hold $9,000.
3. Ask for the rest now. In writing: "Here is the list we agreed. We'll finish these by Friday. The balance less $400 is due now, and the $400 when the list is done."
4. Finish the list fast and photograph each item. A list that drags gives the client a reason to keep waiting.

When the complaint is about quality

Sometimes the punch list is cover for not wanting to pay. You can tell because the complaints are vague ("it doesn't look right") and the list keeps growing. Ask for specifics, in writing, against what the contract said. A complaint has to name what's wrong and where. If it can't, you're looking at a payment problem, and the steps on a client who goes silent apply.

Stay calm and stay on paper. Damaging finished work because you weren't paid can turn a payment dispute into a criminal case. A Colorado news story about a contractor who smashed a bathroom he said he hadn't been paid for went around for exactly that reason.

Set the next job up differently

• Walk and sign off each stage as it's done, so the end is a short list instead of a long one.
• Write into the contract what can be held back at the end: the value of the open items, not the whole balance.
• Give the client a set number of days to sign off or say what's wrong, and say what happens if they don't answer.
• Start the warranty when the final payment clears. Then the warranty is something the client wants from you at the end.

The remodeling contract checklist has all four.

This is general information, not legal advice. States differ on what a home improvement contract and its changes must contain. Check with your state’s contractor licensing board or an attorney.