How paying your contractor works

FastHands never holds your money. You pay your contractor directly, on the terms in your signed contract, and we never take a cut of what you pay them. This is the model, not a stage on the way to another one.

Every job on FastHands starts with a digital agreement covering the scope, the price and the timeline, signed by both of you before work begins. That agreement is the thing that protects you: it is what a dispute is judged against, and it is on record whatever happens later.

The sequence

• You pick a bid. You and the contractor sign the agreement — scope, price, timeline.
• The contractor does the work.
• The contractor marks the job complete and submits photo proof.
• You pay them directly, on the terms you agreed.

What protects you today

• Every contractor is CSLB license-verified before they can bid.
• The scope and price are agreed in writing before any work starts.
• Completion requires photo proof, kept on record.
• The full chat history is retained, so nothing depends on memory.

Paying safely

The usual advice applies, and it is good advice regardless of platform. Do not pay the full amount before the work is done. California law caps a deposit on a home improvement contract at $1,000 or 10% of the price, whichever is less — a contractor asking for more than that is a warning sign in itself. Pay against completed milestones where the job is large enough to have them.

If something goes wrong

Raise it with us. We review the signed agreement, the chat history and the photos, and we act on the account where that is warranted — we cannot refund you, because we never held your money, but you keep the signed contract, the timestamped photos and the unedited chat log, which is what small claims runs on. There is more detail in what to do if something goes wrong.

Why FastHands does not hold your money

Holding your money would make us a party to your payment, and it is not what protects you. What protects you is a contract you both signed before the work started, a contractor whose licence we checked against the state registry, photo proof of the finished work, and a chat history neither side can edit. That is what a dispute is judged against.