Eight points without which the contract is incomplete
A renovation contract should pin down eight things: who the parties are and where the property is; exactly what will be done, with annexes; the price and how it is calculated; how changes are handled; the timeline; the payment schedule; who is responsible for permits, insurance and damage; and warranty, handover and dispute resolution. The total on the last page is only one of those points.
Below we go through each one: what it should say and which wording is worth changing before you sign. A legal review of a specific contract is a job for a lawyer, but you can work through this list yourself in an evening.
1. Parties and property
The company’s full registered name, NIF (tax ID), registered address and the name of the person signing on its behalf. On your side: name, NIE or DNI, address. The exact property address, ideally with the cadastral reference.
Check that the company in the contract is the one that invoices and receives the money. A contract with one firm and payments to another firm’s account is a classic gap through which nothing can be recovered later. We explain how to check a company’s NIF in a separate guide.
2. Scope and annexes
Scope is not described as “full renovation of the flat”. It lives in the annexes: an itemised quote with quantities, drawings, a specification schedule (memoria de calidades) with brands or product ranges, and a list of what is excluded. The contract should state that the annexes form part of it.
The exclusions list deserves its own attention. Bespoke furniture, appliances, light fittings, removal of old furniture, final cleaning: each item is either in or clearly out. Mid-project arguments almost always come from what nobody wrote down.
3–4. Price and change control
Price: fixed for the described scope, or by actual measurement with unit rates. We cover the difference between the two in a separate guide. VAT should appear on its own line, so there is no question of whether the figure includes it.
Changes: any extra work, material swap or new item is agreed in writing before it is carried out, with its price and effect on the timeline, signed by both parties. A clause like “additional work will be charged as carried out”, with no prior approval, is one to rewrite.
5–6. Timeline and payments
A start date or start condition (for example, the permit being granted), duration by stage, and what happens if either side causes a delay. If a late-completion penalty is agreed, its amount and how it is calculated go into the contract itself.
Payments are tied to stages you can verify by eye: strip-out finished, first-fix services checked, tiling laid. Every payment gets an invoice. Also agree what portion stays outstanding until handover and the snagging list is closed. More on scheduling in our guide to stage payments.
7. Permits, insurance and liability
Who prepares and files the paperwork with the ajuntament, who pays the fees, who handles waste removal, protection of common areas and damage to neighbours. Whether the contractor has civil liability insurance and for how much: ask for a copy of the policy.
On commercial projects this clause goes further. In the 250 m² child psychology centre in the Eixample, legalising the healthcare activity was part of the scope, and a contract like that must spell out who is responsible for each document. Otherwise, just before opening, it turns out nobody applied for the activity licence.
8. Warranty, handover and disputes
How handover works: a joint walk-through, a signed record and a snagging list with deadlines. What warranty the contractor gives, for how long and how a defect is reported: in writing, to which address, and how quickly they must attend. For the liability periods set by law and whether they apply to your renovation, ask a lawyer.
Disputes: negotiation first and, if both want it, mediation; then the courts where the property is located. And termination terms: what counts as abandoning the works, how completed work is recorded and how accounts are settled. This clause looks unnecessary right up to the day you need it.
How to check the contract before signing
Put the contract and the quote side by side and go through the eight points. If one is missing, ask for it to be added. How the contractor reacts says a lot. We work under a written contract with stage payments and one person responsible for the project, in Spanish and Russian. Tell us about your project: we reply within an hour.