Paid

Before you start a new job, what do you actually check on the builder?

Most tradies have some version of this ritual. Call a mate who's worked with them. Look them up on ASIC. Check how they handle disputes, how they communicate, whether they pay on time based on word of mouth.

Reputation is a real signal. It's not a useless check. But reputation tells you how a builder has behaved in the past, on projects that may have been structured completely differently from the one you're about to start.

It doesn't tell you whether the funding for your payments is actually sitting in a protected account. It doesn't tell you who gets paid first if something goes sideways.

Every tradie has a version of this pre-job checklist. The question is whether what's on it can actually answer the thing that matters most.

What's your process? Trade, state, and what you check before you mobilise. Add it below.

Most subbies have never run a credit check on a builder before quoting a job. Three checks are available to any subcontractor before they price a job. They are public, cheap, and most people have never done them.

A plumber in Melbourne started running these checks after being burned on a $44,000 outstanding claim. Six months in, he ran an ASIC search on a builder he was about to quote for a commercial fitout. Same director. Two prior liquidations. He walked away. That builder went into administration eight months later. His former colleagues who did that job are still chasing $290,000 between them.

Running these checks narrows the exposure before you mobilise. Paid closes what remains after the due diligence, structurally protected payment even when all the signals look clean.

If you wanna learn more on how to protect your next job's payment, click the link in our bio.