30 days from due date, some builders in Australia try and take 90 days out on 30 day invoices. When doing builders cleans we have 50 percent upfront. 7 day trading term and 10% interest payment after due date. This is because it is very common in Australia for builders to do this when they are dodgy. In Australia you can’t put a caveat (lien think you guys call it) on a house here. It’s a civil matter between you and the builder. You have to personally go after them ( fire extinguisher filled with paint is a common one whole house in under 3 minutes:smiling_imp:) Of course im joking about doing this 
You will find that following up directly on date of due invoices if they are legit they may have just forgotton snd pay. Best of luck.
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Man that’s funny you posted this. I am going through literally the exact same thing right now only in the earlier stages. I was brought on to a ccu job two weeks ago by a cleaning company and I completed the job before them (this was a hell of a job) but I sent the invoice to the cleaning company on a email that the builder was attached to and received one back that said “waiting on the electric to be turned on so I can do some final touch ups then we will be paid” uh, ok man but the due date on the invoice states it was due today (I gave them 7 days) normally I don’t play, when I’m done I’m paid when it’s my own agreement and not through another company. This invoice still hasn’t been paid and I haven’t heard anything since last week. I’m pretty irritated. They owe me a lot of money. I feel your pain. I am about to stop doing this and just deal with builders first hand. It’s irritating. Not only this but I’m owed by them on a separate job I also did before this one.
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Why would you start another job with them without being paid for the first job from them?
(Its a rhetorical question, food for thought really.)
Dealing with the builder direct “in most cases” won’t be any easier…
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All can suggest get ( a letter of demand on a solicitor’s letterhead) for the amount owed.
Here in Australia costs about $50.
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Because he stated that he gives them a two week period to make payment. Within those two weeks I did both jobs. Also, one is one of his recurring quarterly customers (big dealership) I met him on a separate job site when I was dealing with a builder first hand. It’s always easier in my experience to deal directly. Any ccu job I’ve done in 3 years has been paid either right after the job was completed or even sometimes I’ve been paid before I even started.
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Honestly this kinda shit is why I prefer not to do CCUs, last large CCU I did a few years ago took forever to get paid builder said if was owners who were to pay, owners said builders, Eventually got paid by the builder.
Builders usually bork at my hourly rate telling me i’m gonna have to come down on that, that’s where I close my folder and politely inform them I will not be able to help. and start to walk away.
Builders only want to know your hourly rate anything above $40 per hour for cleaning in their minds is outrageous when the painter is only on $45 and the plasterer is on $50.
IMO the only way you can make $$ on CCU if you have employees, I would much prefer to be doing maintenance cleans and be on $70-$120 per hour and not have to stand on a ladder for 15 mins scrubbing a pane of glass off all the paint and crap coz everything is tempered and scratches if your scraper even looks at the glass.
I will never again do a CCU, not worth the effort for a 1 man show.
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Stick with the easy maintenance cleans (No CCU work). A lot less stress!
Glad to hear you decided not to do CCU’s anymore. I would rather get hit in the face with a hammer than clean a CCU.
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CCU has never worked out for me, they’d rather contract some bum cleaning company who scratches glass and doesn’t do a professional job, and has no clue about windows. I know because one of those bum cleaning company’s contracted me not to long ago. In the construction world everybody screws everybody and if your the sub contractor to the sub of the sub of the other sub of the main sub, then all those subs get paid before the bum cleaning company gets paid, then you finally are suppose to get paid but they screw you cuz they got screwed all the way up the ladder. I hate CCU and will never do one agian, they’re all pita and no one wants to pay for quality work. Good luck bro, I’m still trying to collect from my last one about 4 months ago.
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Last big CCU I did, one of my guys had just finished doing drops in one of the courtyards, which was the very end of the job. Showed the foreman and he said it looked good. End of the day comes and he asked me why we didn’t do two sets of windows all the way down to ground level. I get out there and remind him of what he seen and said to me…and informed him that the tile setters threw their dirty water from their buckets from the balcony on the 7th floor and all that garbage on the glass will need to be steel wool’ed off the glass now.
“so should I add it to the invoice?” is all I said and I screwed up by not giving him the number right there. He’s only a foreman, HIS BOSS is the one that should be signing off on that not him, he don’t have the authority.
So, I got burned. The guys boss told me theres no way in hell he’s going to pay 1200 bucks for cleaning 14 panels. I even told him "well, would you rather pay the 900 each to replace them? Because thats your only other option. Anyone else would’ve scratched that glass and you know it.
I still never got a dime for it. And I still work for them too. It was only 1200 off of a 16k job.
It stung.
But I learned my lesson.
Steve there is not way I’d do any work for them if I never did work for them before…look you can put a mechanics lien on that property. That was a verbal agreement and will hold up in court. You have the emails. Thats your contract bro.
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That doesn’t mean that you have to wait for him to be payed. You set your terms with him just like he set his terms with the builder.
It your business. You set your terms and price just like any other well run business does.
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Yea we discussed this exact thing yesterday afternoon late and I told him I sent a new invoice with the due date set as this upcoming Tuesday and there was no leniency. I stated that if he doesn’t have money set aside to cover anyone he contracts once they are done then he needs to not be contracting anyone out. I am not going to ride this roller coaster with him and wait for the builder to pay him before he can pay me. May have ended a business relationship but I don’t really care. I don’t need business like that.
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I just started a 7 story interior CCU, reading this post makes me excited
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I’m hoping to start one in the next couple weeks too. An 8 story, and nary a window protected either. Or frames. I’m trying to get some working money up front. If not, don’t really think I can swing it. Its gonna take 20 days to finish inside and out I believe.
I’m too fat to cinch up my belt any more.
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Obviously my tactics worked because I was paid in full today. He actually paid me in advance for a bid that I threw this afternoon. I guess I made my point
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