A renovation contract is not there to predict every screw. It is there so both sides know what is being built, what is excluded, when money moves, and how the next awkward question gets answered without a kitchen-table summit.
The Ontario baseline
Ontario's current home renovation rights guide says contracts worth more than $50 must be written. It recommends at least three written estimates, a modest deposit, and a contract that includes identity, detailed work and materials, warranties, total cost, payment terms, dates, cleanup, and subcontracting details. If the estimate is included, the guide explains the 10 percent limit unless the parties agree to new work or a new price.
The one-page signing check
- Correct legal business name, address, contacts, HST treatment, and homeowner names.
- Drawings, specifications, quantities, product allowances, exclusions, and responsibility for existing-condition surprises.
- Start assumptions, milestone schedule, access, working hours, protection, waste, cleanup, and substantial completion.
- Deposit and progress draws tied to visible milestones, not dates alone.
- Who prepares permits, pays fees, books inspections, answers deficiencies, and gives you final records.
- Written change orders showing scope, price, tax, schedule impact, and approval before changed work proceeds.
- Warranty, deficiency process, insurance, WSIB, suspension, termination, and dispute terms.
Attach the quote, finish schedule, drawings, and approved alternates to the signed agreement. Our quote-reading guide shows how to compare allowances and exclusions, while the change-order guide keeps mid-project decisions documented.
Before anyone signs
Verify the contractor, references, regulated trades, insurance, and WSIB status. Confirm the permit path. Read every linked document without the salesperson hovering. Ontario also describes a 10-day cooling-off period for qualifying agreements signed in the home, but do not use that as planning software. Sign when the scope is ready.
This is practical consumer information, not legal advice. For a large renovation, structural project, complex financing arrangement, or unusual risk allocation, have an Ontario construction lawyer review the agreement. Legal review is cheaper before demolition develops opinions.
