Working for someone who is NOT the property owner

I always take 100% up front in those cases. I hold the check (don't cash it) until the work is complete. On the same day the prints are mailed, the check is deposited.

One of my buddies on the other hand has another approach. He requires the client to come to his office to pick up the maps, and requires them to bring a check with them. Hand in hand trade.

Trading the maps for the check is what I've always done as well.

Here is my standard retainer fee contract language:

Upon our receipt of this fully executed agreement and the retainer fee we will commence with professional land surveying for the above referenced project. The fee for this service is $1,250 with a retainer of half of the fee ($625) due at the time of execution of this agreement.

Once we receive the above we will then commence with the initial county records research & field locations. Then we will set the corner location stakes & provide the final certified survey drawing upon receipt of the remaining balance ($625) due. We anticipate completing these services within 2 to 3 weeks of receipt of the initial retainer fee.

Any additional services required after we deliver the survey as a result of comments from you, your lender, your buyer, your seller, any attorney, engineer, or otherwise (“attorney comments”) will be invoiced on an hourly basis at our current hourly rates.

Incredibly I've only had one problem of that kind. And, I've done at least a thousand of these for the buyer. The difference may be that I work a relatively small area and have a significant portion of my clients being people I already know for one reason or another or have been referred to me by someone we both know.

In every situation that has resulted in small claims court or a limited action suit, the deadbeat has always been the property owner.

My one bad deal involved dealing directly with a realtor where the sale never happened. The story behind it is weird. A couple had owned the tract. They divorced and one of them received that tract in the settlement. That spouse then decided to sell half of the tract in order to get some dollars to do something else. So it was listed with the realtor who called me to do the split. He found a buyer rather quickly....the other spouse. Time passed and no money in my mailbox. A reminder notice with a late fee was mailed to the realtor. A month passed and a second mailing went to the realtor. He called to explain that the sale never happened because the couple got remarried. I explained that "someone" needed to pay the bill immediately and, since he was the only one I had dealt with, he was that "someone". He grudgingly sent the money despite not making a dime on the deal. He surely eventually was compensated by the couple, but I don't know if that happened.

> I usually require a 50% down payment, but in the past, I've told potential non-owner clients that I want full payment up front since they don't own the property - I don't recall ever getting hired for these, so this might not be a good approach...
>
> Is there anything special that any of you do (contractually or otherwise) in these cases to ensure that you get paid?
>

Ask for 75% up front and see what they say. Make sure 75% will cover you if they back out and still want to stiff you the other 25%.

Sometimes, though, you just have to let them go.

Not trying to hijack the thread, but local or not, I would not touch the job until I had the owners OK. Too many times I have seen lawsuit start because the landowner drove up and discovered someone surveying HIS PROPERTY without his knowledge or consent. Just my 2 cents.

Push for the highest retainer your market will bear. In this day and age it's worth checking out the people and company names of prospective clients as well.
FWIW the only clients that ever stiffed me were surveyors (I used to sell refurbished plotters)...

The buyer ordering a survey is quite common around here. This is mostly for a pending real estate transaction when a survey is required. Usually, I ask for a credit card number before putting it on the schedule. Most times I get paid at closing, but in the event it doesn't close, I bill the credit card.

I think much of this dilemma is borderline geographic, and your ability to read/judge the character in people.

Never had any payment issues in MI in my 13 yrs in business. Here in AZ it seems that 50% all have issues in my 7 plus yrs. Not fun.

In your instance Gromaticus, I'd tend to get my money up front. Keep the check and then deposit upon delivery. Or just cash it and finish the job.

Thank you all for the replies and ideas. I think what I'll do is require a 50% deposit as usual, and hold the plan hostage for a check. That seems reasonable. Sometimes people get all bent out of shape when I make it clear that I want to be paid!

I am of course being somewhat paranoid - I've only had one person stiff me - that was $100 about 12 years ago. But that still bothers me to the extent that earlier this year I declined a job at the house where he used to live 20 years ago! That'll teach him...

I do have one client who is about 3 months late right now - an architect of course! I would never work for a realtor, and this is my last architect client.

I'm surprised this doesn't come up more often for me, but most of my non-owners are decades-old repeat clients. Most other developers these days seem to go with one of the larger firms.

> ...But that still bothers me to the extent that earlier this year I declined a job at the house where he used to live 20 years ago! That'll teach him...

hahaha...

Holding the drawing until paid up will not help with the situations where the deal falls through for reasons other than the results of the survey. Maybe they found a better property, had financing difficulty or cold feet, home inspector's results, etc., which might constitute the majority of the non-transactions.

Oh.

I hadn't thought of that. It looks to me like the only way to guard against that would be to charge 100% up front.

Well, I guess I will do that then. Why should I take the risk?

Or better yet charge 110% up front and rebate 10% if the deal goes through!

(Yeah!... yeah.. that's the ticket....) 😉

Working for someone who is NOT the property owner...

Was doing engineering design work on property that was being sold to my client, in an effort to prepare drawings for zoning submittals. "Everything is in the works" I was told.

Long story short, the real estate transaction deal falls through and since the client didn't own the property, was reluctant to pay. Since they were not the property owner, could NOT file a lien on the property.

Fortunately, was not too far along the design path where I lost a great deal of money. I had my contract structured for progress payments, just in case something would happen that might affect work and payment. I have a clause in my contracts that says that I can stop work in the event of non-payment. (VERY IMPORTANT!)

The end result was a learning experience about not working for others on properties that they do not yet own.

Ultimately a happy ending where I was paid for work when they eventually closed on the project.