We have had this problem in the past, these are the things I do to curb the desire of clients to do this to us:
- Pre close out walk through. I schedule this 1 to 2 visits before the job is complete. At this point you have most everything in so you can address concerns then and make a preliminary punch list. Main thing is not to be rushing out the door the final day, trying to get payment
- Do a final walk through the day after the job is done. Schedule this in advance. This will give them time to look at the job with no one there. If you need to go back, make sure to make a final punch list with them and send your guys to knock it out in a day (hopefully it wouldn't be any more).
- Bring a job sign off form. This form shows your warranty info, has a place to write in any things you need to sign off on (like if you had to do something non standard that they were aware of ahead of time), and shows the job is complete. This cements it in their head that the job is done.
Outside of this you would just need to be firm. I get both perspectives. To us, it's just a remodel but to them it's a huge investment so we need to understand that they are doing that because we didn't properly set boundaries ahead of time, make a complete list for one last stop, learn from it, then be better on the next one.
