How to tie payments to real progress
Each payment is tied to a milestone you can verify, not to a date on the calendar: demolition finished, services installed and tested, partitions and screeds done, finishes complete, handover. Before each payment the contractor issues a progress valuation (certificación de obra) with photos and the amount per line of the quote. A small part is held back until the snags found at handover are fixed.
That way you pay for what has been built, and the contractor gets paid at a clear moment, without arguments about “what percentage is done”.
What a progress valuation is
A valuation is a table following the lines of the quote: what has been done up to a given date, what percentage of each item, what it is worth, how much has already been paid and how much is due now. Photos are attached.
How it is calculated depends on the type of quote. With a fixed-price quote, payments usually follow milestones. With a measured quote, the work done is measured and paid at unit rates. We explain the difference between the two in a separate guide. Either way, the valuation is the basis for the invoice, and the figures on both must match.
Choosing milestones
A good milestone can be seen with your own eyes and checked in one visit. “50 % of the work done” is a poor milestone, because there is no way to verify it. “All water pipes installed and pressure-tested” is a good one.
Pay special attention to the moment before walls are closed. Once plastered, services are hidden, so the “first fix” milestone is worth inspecting in person or through a detailed video: pipe and cable routes, the pressure test, wiring back to the board. It is best not to release that payment until you have seen what will later disappear from view.
An illustrative schedule
Take a 100 m² flat at Standard level: at our prices, from €200,000 excluding VAT. This illustrates the logic; it is not a contract template, and the proportions differ from project to project.
Deposit on signing: 10 %. How much it is reasonable to pay up front is covered in a separate guide. Demolition and setting out partitions: 15 %. First-fix plumbing and electrics installed and tested: 20 %. Partitions, plaster and screeds complete: 20 %. Tiling, flooring and joinery installed: 20 %. Handover: 10 %. The final 5 % is paid once the snag list is closed.
Under this scheme, the client is never more than one stage ahead of actual progress, and usually it is the other way round.
Checking a valuation before you pay
Compare it with the previous one: percentages for each item should rise steadily, not jump. Check that the amounts on the valuation and the invoice match and that VAT is charged at the rate in the contract. If an item is shown at 100 % and you cannot see it on site, ask before you transfer anything.
Materials delivered but not yet installed are a separate question. Whether they can be included in a valuation is decided in the contract beforehand. If so, only what is physically on your site counts, not stock sitting in the supplier’s warehouse.
Changes during the works
Extra work is kept out of the milestone schedule. Each change is approved in writing, with its price, before it is carried out, and appears as its own line on the valuation. Otherwise, two months later nobody can explain why a stage costs more than the contract says. What to do if the budget starts climbing is covered in another guide.
Final payment and retention
The final payment is tied to handover: the site is clean, the contracted works are complete and a snag list has been drawn up. The retention is paid once those snags are fixed. Along with it you receive the paperwork: certificates for the electrics and equipment, manufacturers’ warranties and manuals.
A retention is not a way to save money. It is an incentive to finish the small things, and its amount and timing are set in the contract from the start.
If you are asked to pay early
If a payment is requested and the matching progress is not visible on site, ask for the valuation and visit before you transfer the money. Holding a payment until a discrepancy is cleared up should have no consequences if the contract schedule is built around milestones.
On our projects, payments follow the contract stage by stage, one person is responsible for the site, and we work in Russian and Spanish. If you would like to discuss a payment schedule for your renovation, send us the plan and a description of the works. We will reply within an hour.