A deposit to a contractor: how much, when, and what becomes of it in a bankruptcy

The guidelines published by the FPS Economy for renovation companies say it in one sentence: the company is free to ask for a deposit (acompte) or not. A deposit is therefore not a formality imposed by law, but a clause negotiated before signature, like the price and the deadline.

For ordinary renovation work, no percentage is fixed by any text. The question "how much?" has no legal answer: it has a contractual answer, which is written into the offer before signature, or is not.

The FPS Economy does recommend that the offer state the amount of the deposit and the arrangements for the intermediate payments. An offer that says nothing on those two points leaves the split of the payments to be settled later, once the job has already started.

Payment of a deposit by a consumer triggers a precise obligation: the company must draw up an order form, under article VI.88 of the Code of Economic Law. If no deposit is asked for, that document is not required — it is indeed the payment that makes it compulsory.

The order form must state at least the name, the address and the enterprise number, the date and the serial number, a description making it possible to identify the goods or the service, the unit price, the quantity and the total price, the amount of the deposit paid, the amount left to pay, the date or the period for delivery, and the signature. A quote can serve as the order form if it contains all of those particulars.

Two of those particulars do all the work: the amount left to pay and the deadline. They turn a payment into a written and dated undertaking, which is exactly what is missing when a deposit is handed over against nothing more than an oral confirmation.

The informed builder's checklist, published by the FPS Economy, describes the opposite structure to the large lump-sum deposit: a written contract with clear agreements on payment, then payments made as the work progresses, after the invoices have been received. It also urges checking that the payee's account number is correct before every transfer.

The same document advises avoiding advances that look too high and asking for an explanation of them, without letting yourself be put under pressure. It flags a borderline case: a clause requiring a deposit of 100% before the installation or the execution of the work, which amounts to payment of the whole price before anything is performed and can be challenged as unfair.

To that is added a rule that holds whatever timetable has been agreed: within one and the same contract, it is prohibited to pay more than 3,000 euros in cash, and proof of payment is to be asked for on any payment made in cash.

When the bankruptcy is declared, payments no longer go to the company: they must be made exclusively to the trustee. The contract is not cancelled for all that, and the step described by the FPS Economy is to ask the trustee whether it intends to carry on with the work before looking for another company.

For money already paid, the rule is clear-cut: repayment of the deposit can only come after the preferential creditors have been paid. A private customer has no preference, is an ordinary creditor, and what comes back depends on what the liquidation leaves once the earlier ranks have been served.

An exception exists for projects governed by the Breyne Act — building or buying on plan a turnkey home: where the work is not finished at the time of the bankruptcy, a financial guarantee can be called on. That regime has its own guide here, because it does not apply to an ordinary renovation.

The FPS Economy checklist points first to the enterprise number shown on the quote, then to the public search of the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises. It tells you whether the company is registered, which activities it has declared, and what the "legal situation" heading says: the entry "opening of bankruptcy" appears there when a proceeding is under way.

The second register cited is the public tool for checking withholding obligations, which shows a company's tax debts and its social security debts separately. The answer is in green or in red, and a certificate of the search can be obtained — which gives a dated record of what the register said that day.

None of these searches makes a deposit recoverable. They say what a register showed on a date, not what the company will be in six months, and a favourable answer is not a guarantee about the job to come. What limits the exposure is not the check itself: it is what stays written in the contract, and what has not yet been paid.