A price without a scope is not a quote
A real quote describes the work room by room: what is removed, what is installed, what is protected, what is left alone. If you cannot tell from the document what will physically happen in your home, the number cannot be trusted and cannot be compared.
Read the exclusions first
The exclusions are where the second invoice lives. Look for licensing, waste removal, protection of common areas, making good, electrical certification, and anything described as subject to survey.
- Are permits and fees included?
- Who pays for waste removal and site protection?
- Are materials allowances or actual selections?
- What happens if hidden damage is found?
Allowances are estimates wearing a disguise
When tiles, taps or worktops appear as an allowance rather than a selection, the price is provisional. Either make the selections before signing, or accept that the total will move.
Payment stages should follow progress
Money should follow work that has been completed and checked, not the calendar. A large payment before anything happens transfers all the risk to you.
Ask the three questions that reveal everything
Who is accountable if a trade does not turn up? What happens to the price if you open a wall and find a problem? Who checks the work before I am asked to pay? The answers tell you more than the total ever will.
- Should I always get three quotes?
- Only if all three are quoting the same scope. Three quotes for three different scopes tell you nothing and usually push you toward whoever left the most out.
- Is the cheapest quote a red flag?
- Not automatically. A significantly lower price usually means a smaller scope, thinner allowances or optimistic assumptions. Find out which before deciding.
- What should be in writing before work starts?
- Scope, price, exclusions, programme, payment stages, who is accountable, and how changes will be priced.
Written by the Aurea team. If something here does not match what you have been told, ask us why.
