How paying your contractor works

FastHands does not hold your money. You pay your contractor directly, on the terms in your signed agreement. Escrow — where payment is held by a neutral party until the work is done — is coming, but it is not available yet.

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, in the meantime

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 to reach a fair outcome. There is more detail in what to do if something goes wrong.

Escrow — coming soon

We are building escrow: your payment held by a neutral party, released to the contractor only after the work is submitted as done, with a window for you to confirm it or flag a problem first. It removes the oldest risk in home repair — paying a deposit to someone who does not come back. It is not available yet, and this page will change when it is.