Customer Wants You to Fix Another Contractor's Work: How to Quote It and Protect Yourself

The phone rings and it starts the same way every time. "I had a guy start my bathroom and he stopped showing up. Can you come finish it?" Or: "The deck guy is done but something is off and I think it needs to be redone."

These jobs look like easy money because the customer is already motivated. They are also the jobs most likely to turn into a fight, because you are about to put your name on top of somebody else's work.

I have taken a few of these and turned down a few more. Here is how I think about it.

Quick answer

Go look at it before you say yes. Take photos of everything before you touch anything. Quote the job as if you are starting from zero, because you cannot trust what is behind the drywall. Put in writing that you are not responsible for the other contractor's work. And if the customer is still fighting with the last guy, be careful, because you may be the next person they fight with.

Why these jobs are different

On a normal job you know what you are walking into. On a takeover you do not.

You do not know what the last guy skipped. You do not know if the framing is square, if the wiring is to code, if the waterproofing was ever done. You do not know how much of the customer's money is already gone. And you do not know if the customer is a good person who got burned, or a customer who is hard to please and burned through two contractors already.

That last one matters more than anything. Some people really did get unlucky. Some people are the reason the first contractor quit.

Step 1: Ask a few questions on the phone before you drive out

You can screen a lot in five minutes. Ask:

• What happened with the first contractor? Did he quit, did they fire him, or did the money run out?
• How much has been paid so far, and how much work is actually done?
• Is there a signed contract? Is there a dispute going on?
• Are permits open on the job?
• Are they planning to go after the first contractor for the money?

Listen to how they talk about the last guy. If every sentence is a complaint and nothing is their fault, note that. If they are calm and just want it fixed, good sign.

If there is an open dispute or a lawyer involved, think hard. You can get pulled in as a witness whether you want to or not.

Step 2: Photograph everything before you touch it

This is the step people skip, and it is the one that saves you.

When you show up, walk the whole job with your phone. Take wide shots and close ones. Get the problem areas, the finished areas, the stuff that looks fine. Open up an outlet box. Look in the crawl space or the attic if it matters. Date everything. Text the photos to the customer the same day with a short note: "Here is how I found the job on [date]. Photos attached."

Why bother? Because the day you start working, anything wrong becomes yours in the customer's mind. A leak that was already coming shows up two months after you finish and suddenly you are the guy who did the plumbing. The photos with a date on them are your proof of what was there before you.

Step 3: Quote it like you are starting from scratch

Here is where contractors lose money. You look at the job, you see half the work is done, and you quote the other half. Then you open a wall and find half of the "done" half has to be torn out.

Two ways to handle the unknown:

Quote the visible work and name the unknowns. Write down what you can see, give a price for that, and state clearly that hidden problems will be handled as a change order at cost plus your normal markup. How to write a change order covers the wording.

Charge for the inspection first. If the job is big or the damage looks serious, charge a fee to open it up and write a real assessment. Should I charge for estimates goes into when that is fair. A customer who refuses to pay for a proper look at a messed up job is telling you something.

Either way, price it higher than a clean job of the same size. You are carrying risk and extra time. Sorting out what the last guy did takes hours that never show up on the invoice, so build them in. If you are not sure how, how to price a job has the basics.

Step 4: Put the dividing line in writing

This is the single most important paragraph you will write on one of these jobs. Your quote or contract should say, in plain words:

Work completed by [previous contractor] before [date] is excluded from this agreement. [Your company] is responsible only for the work described in this quote. Hidden defects or code issues found in prior work will be quoted separately before being repaired.

You are not being cold. You are drawing a line so that the customer, you, and anyone who looks at this later knows where the last guy's responsibility ended and yours began.

If your warranty normally covers a whole area, say that on a takeover it covers only your own work. How long should a contractor warranty be has a few ways to word that.

Step 5: Ask for more money up front than usual

A customer who has just been burned by a contractor who took money and left is nervous about paying. A contractor who has been burned by customers who will not pay is nervous too. Both of you have reasons.

A fair middle: a deposit that covers the materials you will need to buy, and smaller progress payments tied to clear milestones. No big payment at the start for work you have not done, and no big balance sitting at the end either. How to ask for a deposit has some wording that does not sound like you are accusing anyone.

Be ready to explain it kindly. "I'm not worried about you, I just do every job this way" goes a long way.

What to say when you do not want the job

You are allowed to say no. Some of these are not worth it. Signs it is time to pass:

• The customer is in a legal fight and wants you to help prove the other contractor was bad.
• They want you to guarantee work you did not do.
• The scope keeps changing while you are standing there.
• They push you to start without a signed quote.
• The building has open permits from the last contractor and nobody wants to deal with the inspector.

A polite way out:

I appreciate you thinking of us. After looking at it, I don't think we're the right fit for this one. Taking over partway through a job comes with risks I'm not able to take on right now. I'd suggest getting a second opinion, and I'm happy to share what I noticed so you can show the next contractor.

You can also offer a smaller piece. Sometimes "I will repair the one thing that is clearly wrong and leave the rest" is a clean job with clean limits.

Do not trash the other contractor

It is tempting. The work really is bad, and the customer wants you to agree. Resist it.

You only saw the end of the story. Maybe the customer changed the plan three times. Maybe they stopped paying. Maybe the guy had a family emergency. Say what you see about the work itself: "this joist is not nailed to spec", not "this guy is a clown." Keep it about the wood, not the man.

You never know who knows who in a small trade community, and the person you complain about may be your next sub or your next referral.

A short version

When a customer wants you to fix or finish another contractor's job, screen them on the phone, photograph everything before you touch it, quote it as if you are starting from zero, and write down exactly where the old work ends and your work begins. Ask for fair milestone payments. Charge more than a clean job because you are carrying more risk. And if the customer is in a fight or the job feels wrong, pass politely. Plenty of these customers become your best repeat clients. A few become your worst story. A final walkthrough with a punch list at the end keeps you on the right side of both.

The part that slips

The takeover call is usually a hot lead, because the customer is stressed and wants someone fast. That window closes quickly. If you take two days to send the quote, they call the next name on the list, and the one after that. And after the quote goes out, many of these customers go quiet while they cool off and think about whether to pay for the fix at all.

That is what QuoteChaser does. It follows up on every quote that has gone quiet, in your own voice, and pings your phone when a customer writes back, so you do not lose a good job to silence. If your first customer chose someone else, here is what to do when a customer hired another contractor.

Join the QuoteChaser waitlist and stop letting good quotes go cold.