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Do I Need a Written Contract for a Home Improvement Project?

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Home improvements can be incredibly stressful. Contractors are working in and out of your home. They’re loud, expensive, and often take longer than you’re expecting. Still, once they’re done, your home’s value has gone up and become more enjoyable to live in. Unfortunately, there are times when issues are going to come up, and the services that you receive don’t match your expectations. What options do you have? Going to an experienced Seattle contract attorney is a good start. However, getting the help of a Seattle real estate attorney before you enter the contract is an even better idea. This way you can have an agreement in place and binding before the project starts. 

What is a Written Contract?

Attorneys in Seattle Washington write contracts for a variety of items. Essentially, a written contract is an agreement between two parties that has been written out beforehand. 

Written contracts are common for any number of issues, such as an agreement for employment, service provider agreements, and prenuptial agreements. Writing out a contract before you agree to home improvement work with a contractor is also common and important. 

Why Are Written Contracts Important in Home Improvement?

written contract

When you hire a contractor to work on your home, you’re entering into an agreement with them. The agreement states how much money you expect to pay them, for how long they should be working, and what work you expect them to accomplish during that time. Having a Seattle real estate attorney write up a formal written contract or review a contractor’s proposed contract is vitally important. This formalizes the agreement, making sure that both parties follow it expected and agreed.

 

While both verbal and written agreements are enforceable, there is good reason to have a written agreement for your home improvement project. For instance, you may have a verbal agreement with someone who installs a deck in your backyard.  The agr

eement is for the deck to be a specific set of dimensions and look a certain way. They perform the task, but it’s smaller than expected or doesn’t meet your expectations in some way. What recourse do you have? A verbal agreement leaves you in a far more difficult position, as there is no written proof that you had agreed to a set of standards beforehand. On the other side, if a homeowner tries to get out of paying a contractor, or pay them less than they agreed to, then the absence of a written contract makes it harder to prove what was agreed.  A written contract relieves these concerns.

To put it simply, for both homeo

wner and contractor, having a written agreement is vital to making sure that you have the best possible experience in your home improvement project. 

How Can a Seattle Real Estate Attorney Help You?

A Seattle real estate attorney can help you by writing up the legal agreement or reviewing and suggesting revisions to the contractor’s form. Their understanding of the law makes sure that everything in the agreement is legal and that the process is done as efficiently as possible. Furthermore, they have expertise and experience that will help them to see any problems that may arise in such an agreement. This means they can suggest proper wording and clauses given particular situations that you may never have considered could happen. 

For more information on how attorneys in Seattle Washington, can help you with a home improvement contract, please contact Frey Buck today. 

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