Deposits, progress payments and what is normal in WA
24 May 2026 · 3 min read
What a reasonable deposit looks like, when money should change hands, and the payment patterns that should make you pause.
Money is the part of a painting job people are least comfortable asking about, which is exactly why it is worth setting out plainly.
Deposits
A deposit exists to cover materials and to commit both parties to a date. It is normal and it is reasonable.
What is not reasonable is a deposit large enough that the painter has already been paid for labour not yet performed. If a deposit approaches half the contract value on a job that has not started, ask what it is for.
For most residential repaints, a modest percentage covering materials is the norm. For a large job with a substantial specialist material order, a larger deposit can be legitimate — but it should be explained, and it should correspond to something real.
Domestic building contracts
Larger residential building work in WA sits under the *Home Building Contracts Act 1991*, which regulates deposits and progress payments for work above the prescribed threshold. Most standalone repaints fall below it, but if your painting is part of a bigger renovation contract, the rules may apply. Ask, and get the answer in writing.
Progress payments
Progress payments should be tied to **stages of work completed**, never to dates on a calendar. "50% on completion of preparation and priming" is a payment you can verify by looking at the house. "50% on 14 March" is a payment you make whether or not anything has happened.
A sensible structure on a medium job looks like:
| Stage | Trigger |
|---|---|
| Deposit | On acceptance, covering materials |
| Progress | Preparation and priming complete and inspected |
| Progress | First finish coat complete |
| Final | Practical completion, after your walk-through |
The final payment is the one that matters
Hold a final payment until you have walked the job and agreed it is finished. Not because painters cannot be trusted, but because the walk-through is the only moment when everyone's attention is on the same list, and a defect noticed then gets fixed in an afternoon.
Do the walk-through properly: in daylight, from a metre away and then from across the room, checking cut lines at ceilings and skirtings, coverage over patched areas, overspray on hardware and glass, and consistency of sheen. Write the list down. Agree a date.
Variations
Anything outside the quoted scope should be a written variation, priced and approved **before** it is done. This is the single largest source of end-of-job disputes: work that everyone agrees was necessary, that nobody agreed a price for.
The awkwardness of asking for a variation in writing is much smaller than the awkwardness of an invoice you did not expect.
What should make you pause
- A deposit that covers most of the job
- Cash only, or a discount conditional on cash
- No ABN, or an ABN that does not check out on the ABR
- A price that expires today
- Payment demanded in full before the final coat
- Refusal to put the warranty or the scope in writing
Your position if it goes wrong
You have consumer guarantees under the Australian Consumer Law that cannot be excluded by any contract term. Services must be provided with due care and skill and be fit for purpose. If they are not, you are entitled to have the problem fixed within a reasonable time — and if it is a major failure, to cancel and recover.
Keep the quote, the variations, the invoices and a photographic record. Disputes are resolved on documents, and the person with the paperwork is in a much stronger position than the person with a recollection.