Commercial contracts act as insurance for the service provider and their clients and solidifies expectations between both parties. They outline job parameters, such as service details, pricing, and restrictions, that guarantee customers will pay for your service and protect you in the event of a dispute.
Commercial Contracts Help You:
- Avoid potential disputes and costly legal action
- Establish clear expectations and guidelines for parties involved
- Secure compensation
- Verify job scope: Work to be done and outcomes that are expected
- Delegate additional expenses
- Identify all parties involved
Key Elements to Include in Your Commercial Contract:
Start with the essentials:
- Include your name, business name, customer’s name, the customer’s address, and signing date
- Add your business license and permit bonds
- List the duration of service (start & end date), and frequency of service
- Include additional parties that will be involved – an assistant, contracted crews, etc.
Include the cost of service:
Be sure to include not only the cost of the initial service, but also the cost of any additional services that have been included. For instance, if the contract is long term maintenance, and additional services such as sprinkler installation, sod installation, or power washing have been added – list the price for each added service separately.
- State Consequences of Missed Payments: Provide details for the cost of each lawn service, as well as the consequences for defaulting. An example of this would be “Customer shall pay for services by the 15th of each month. If the customer fails to pay after a grace period of 5 days, all services shall stop until the outstanding payments have been received in full.”
- State the Consequences of Unfulfilled Services: If your end of the bargain is left unfulfilled, such as “If the contractor [name of business] is unable to complete their services according to the contract terms, a new date for completion will be reassigned, and a 15% discount will be included for the duration of services provided.”
Insure yourself from ambiguity:
Ambiguity within contracts will be learned and understood through experience within contract making and fulfillment. For example, ambiguity could be within the purchasing of additional materials. If chemicals are used for lawn services, the contract should state clearly whether the customer or the contractor is in charge of purchasing chemicals used.
Another example would be repairs or damaged property. If a fence or irrigation system, for example, has been damaged in the process of providing services, your contract should clearly state who is in charge of hiring/fixing the damaged property.
For additional details to write a full contract, visit: https://www.invoiceowl.com/blog/lawn-care-contract/
For lawn care contract templates, visit: https://templatelab.com/lawn-care-contract/
The information provided in this blog post does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal advice; instead, all information, content, and materials available on this site are for general informational purposes only.
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