[heritagecleaning]

Hi to all

As a result of the postings I've seen here in the last year, I've been considering forming a business to offer dratfting services for cleaning contracts, terms & conditions, service schedules, standing order mandates and maybe other documents for contract cleaners.

It sems many of us are suffering from a lack of proper paperwork, possibly because of high solicitors' costs.

For my part, I have BICS qualifications, run a successful cleaning business plus I have a university degree in law; so maybe I'm the man to plug this gap???

Well, I could be wrong, but I thought it might be a reasonable idea......what do you all think?

Any views would be appreciated.

Thanks


Owen

[domestic.diva]

I'd say yes being a start up business but it all depends as always on cost!

Mind I did find a good website to help on the credit/invoicing side of things

http://www.payontime.co.uk/start_up/introduction.html

Good luck with it.

DD  

[replacement]

Yes it could be very handy. It might be best to develope each one on its own as alot of people have different views etc on how they want there business running. Then charge them for your service via time or other means. My self would be intrested hopefully at a later date.

Justin

[heritagecleaning]

Of course, price is the big thing. The good news is that I was planning to provide a far more cost effective solution than the money grabbing solicitors who, by the way, copy most of these contracts from books rather than drawing them up individually for you.

DD - I've not worked on any figures yet, but around £150 for a contract combining a service schedule and extensive terms and conditions is what I'm aiming for.

Justin - You're quite right; I aim to make every contract personal to the cleaning business in question. The best way, I believe, to achieve this would be to provide the individal or cleaning company in question with a thourough questionnaire about their business and then tailor any contract to suit their needs from the answers given.

If you're interested, I'll keep you posted as to how this develops.

KInd regards


Owen

[Ian Gourlay]

Ive no idea how much a solicitor charges but if he messes up you can report him to law society. Has Indemity Insurance etc.



Will writers do it for about £60  ie write wills


I would have thought that would be a price that would attract a greater response rate.


As although you tailor it for each invidual company a lot of clauses will be common

[heritagecleaning]

Ian

Well, sort of correct. If a solicitor does something really wrong ie. gross misconduct, negligence etc. then he will be answerable to the Law Society. However, as far as the drafting of terms goes you'd have much less comeback. All contract terms are subject in court to 'the test of reasonableness'. That is to say, a judge could strike out any portion of your cleaning contract which he considered unreasonable. You'd have a lot less comeback on your solicitor if this happened.

My Solicitor charges £185 + VAT per hour, so you'd be looking at £800 to a grand for a cleaning contract from him.

Some clauses are 'common', yes, but you'd be surprised how much would have to be adapted for the individual.

Thanks for your views though, much appreciated.

Cheers


Owen

[garyj]

Oddly enough Owen, this is an area I've also thought of going into.
I think there is a market for risk assessments, method statements, check sheets etc.. I know how long it has taken me to create all mine.

If I bought a contract from you at say, £150, and I have 50 contracts could I then adapt the contract for each individual company? If so £150 is a bargain, if not its excessive.

The risk assessment etc idea is similar as in its a huge market but each client would only need to buy it once.

[heritagecleaning]

Gary

Hard to say - it depends on how you'd want to adapt the contract for each company. If you mean adapting the customer details or the tasks you would perform for each customer then yes, because you'd just be re-writing the cleaning schedule which would form part of the contract in each case.

If you mean actually adapting the terms and conditions of contract then I'd say this would be less advisable, as this is where all the legal jargon comes in. Hence why people don't generally write these things themselves.

In any event, it's unlikely you'd want to adjust your core terms and conditions that much. You probably have a way you do business which does not, at its heart, vary much between customers.


Owen