Hello! I'm starting a reconstruction of my house and my builder has requested me to let them use my utilities account during the construction period. Is that normal? 

Someone has to pay for it…

you can negotiate for them to pay, but ultimately you’ll be paying for it, one way or another…

6 hours ago, petetherock said:

Someone has to pay for it…

you can negotiate for them to pay, but ultimately you’ll be paying for it, one way or another…

Yes. The projected monthly usage cost multiply by estimated number of months of the project duration plus a certain margin to cover any delays will be added to the final contract price, hidden somewhere in the contract price.

Another factor main-con use for profit margin is a big 30% factored in of the sub-con’s price. 

It is normal for the contractor to take over the utilities and pay for it.  The cost of utilities would usually have been factored into their pricing of construction to you.

Either he use your account and pay for it. Or you cancel your account, then he open a new account, then after construction is finished, he cancel his account and you open a new account again. 
Either way you are the one paying for the utilities so you see which option you prefer. 

Would there be any liability for me if they use my account? For example if something goes wrong …

Edited October 30, 20215 yr by Firstling
Error

30 minutes ago, Firstling said:

Would there be any liability for me if they use my account? For example if something goes wrong …

Are we talking about a "renovation" scale project or are we talking about construction that requires BCA submission?

If it is the former, than either way can be done. Like the rest has said, even if they pay for it, they will factor that inside their cost submitted to you anyway.

However, if it is a project that requires BCA submission for Permit to Commence Work, then it is a regulation that the contractor has to apply for a commercial account as the place is officially considered a worksite. Residential rates are subsidized which is why they are supposed to apply for their own account. Sometimes, (note this is actually illegal), but contractors will offer you a more attractive overall price to secure the job but ask you to pay for your own electrical bills using your own account. They take this risk - if SP ever does a spot check, they will be trouble and could be fined etc. Sometimes they will smoke their way saying that they are "in the process of applying for own account, so are just temporarily using the existing electricity" 🤣. Well, rightfully they are supposed to use diesel generators before their account is active lol.