Guide · For your client
Deposits and milestones: what to expect
Paying before the work is finished feels wrong until you know why it works that way. Here is what is normal, and what to check each time.
14 days from approval, card required, cancel before it ends. A person reads every application, usually the same day.
For your clientLast reviewed
The reason
Your contractor buys your job before they earn from it
On a renovation the money goes out first: the strip-out crew, the skip, the first tile order, the electrician. A contractor funding all of that from their own pocket until handover is a contractor who cannot take your job. That is why a mobilisation payment is normal, and not a warning sign.
The shape
Each payment should be tied to something you can see
The test is simple: can you walk into the flat and tell whether the thing has happened? “End of month two” fails it. “First fix complete in both bathrooms” passes. Ask for the schedule in that form before you agree it. No share is suggested here — that is between you and your contractor.
Mobilisation
Contract accepted and the site handed over.
Strip-out and first fix
Demolition cleared, pipes and cables in, before anything is closed up.
Finishes started
Plaster and screeds done, tiling under way.
Practical completion
Everything works and you can use the space.
Final release
The snag list is closed.
Before you release
Four things, and they take ten minutes
You are not inspecting the work as an engineer. You are checking that the thing the payment was tied to has actually happened, and that the paperwork matches. Do it the same way every time and the job stays calm.
- Is this the milestone the contract names, in the same words?
- Can you see the thing it describes, or has the contractor shown you?
- Does the amount match what the contract says for this rung?
- Have any accepted changes altered the remaining schedule?
The last payment
The final payment is what brings them back
Many renovation contracts hold part of the sum until the snags are closed, and sometimes until a defects period ends. It is not a penalty; it is the reason a contractor returns for the door that sticks. Agree the amount and what releases it in writing, before work starts.
When it stalls
Write it down before you escalate it
Sites stop for real reasons — an approval, a material lead time, a decision you have not made yet. The first move is not to withhold money; it is to get the cause and the new dates in writing. If nothing moves after that, you have a record instead of a memory.
- Ask in writing what stopped and what it is waiting on.
- Ask for a re-issued programme with new dates.
- Keep paying for what is genuinely complete, and only that.
- Check what your contract says about delay before you do anything else.
How Briked handles this
You can see which rung the job is on, without asking
If your contractor works through Briked, the milestone schedule comes from the quote you accepted, so it cannot quietly differ from what you agreed. You see which rung is next and what closes it, in English or Arabic. Briked never asks you for money — your contractor invoices you the way you agreed.
Milestone 2 of 5
Your apartment, Dubai Marina
- What closes it
- First fix complete, both bathrooms
- Photographs
- 8
- What Briked charges you
- Nothing
Milestone 2 of 5
From the accepted quote
- Trigger
- First fix complete, both bathrooms
- Evidence
- 8 photographs
- Client confirmed
- Waiting
- Schedule source
- The quote your client accepted
General notes
An indicative range is a range, not a price. Only the quote you send your client is a price.
A person accepts every number before it leaves your company. Nothing drafted by AI becomes the record on its own.
Your client never pays for Briked. Answering your scope link, reading your quote and accepting it are free for them, always.
Your rates, your scopes and your clients stay yours. We never show one contractor’s work to another. Read the data promise
The trial runs 14 days from the day we approve your application. A card is required to start it. Trial terms
Common questions
Is a deposit before work starts normal in the UAE?
On renovation work it usually is. What makes one reasonable is that the contract says what it funds and what happens to it if the job does not proceed. Ask for both in writing.
How much should the deposit be?
That is a commercial matter between you and your contractor, and this page deliberately suggests no figure. What matters more is that the amount, the trigger and the refund position are written down before you pay.
Can I hold money back if I am not happy?
Your contract governs that, so read it before acting. Withholding without following what the contract says can put you in the wrong even when the complaint is fair. Put the problem in writing first.
What is retention?
A part of the price held back until the snags are closed, and sometimes until a defects period ends. It is the mechanism that brings a contractor back after handover, which is why it is worth agreeing rather than resisting.
Do I pay Briked anything?
No. Reading your scope, your quote and your milestones costs you nothing, always. Your contractor pays for Briked; you never do.
Scope it, quote it, get it accepted — on your next job, with your rates.
14 days from approval, card required, cancel before it ends. A person reads every application, usually the same day.