A Real Service Contract, Free To Build And Free To Download

Why do "free legal forms" cost money?

Because the download is the product. LawDepot and Rocket Lawyer both let you build the entire document, watch it fill in, feel good about it — and then ask for a card before you can have it. A Rocket Lawyer customer in Roseville, California wrote it plainly in February 2025: "Advertising FREE legal forms that are definitely NOT free. You are required to sign up for a 'free' subscription for 7 days…"

The trial is where the complaints come from. LawDepot's BBB file in Edmonton shows 113 complaints over three years, 24 closed in the last twelve months, with Billing Issues the largest category at 37. One complainant: "I signed up for a free trial… canceled the trial. Well today a week later I got charged." Another: "I began a free trial a year ago… I have been charged nearly $[X] a month for [X] months with… 0 notifications." LawDepot's own posture is a "one-month courtesy refund" and no more. Most of those complaints are marked Answered rather than Resolved — meaning the customer didn't accept the answer.

Rocket Lawyer's BBB file in San Francisco shows 170 complaints over three years, of which 131 were answered and only 39 resolved. One customer was charged "continuously for approximately two years, totaling $1,079.73" with, in their words, complete lack of usage of the service. On ConsumerAffairs the rating is 3.1 out of 5 from 2,927 reviews, and the shape of it is the tell: 49% five-star, 48% one-star. People either get their document and leave happy, or they find recurring charges on a card.

LegalZoom is the biggest file of all: 1,449 BBB complaints over three years, 333 closed in the last twelve months. Registered agent service listed at $249 a year, with one report of the renewal rising to $499 without adequate notice. The Personal Legal Plan is $16.59 a month billed annually; the Business Advisory Plan is $39.09 a month billed annually. A realistic year one for an LLC with the usual add-ons runs $931 to $1,396.

Prices and complaint counts as of August 2026, from BBB complaint pages, ConsumerAffairs and published pricing summaries. Complaint counts move; check them yourself before quoting them.

None of this makes those companies useless. LawDepot's real value is a jurisdiction-specific clause library maintained over time, and Rocket Lawyer's is access to an attorney. If you need either of those, pay for them. What you shouldn't have to pay for is the ability to print a document you already finished writing.

What do contract and signing tools cost in 2026?

Is a template enough for your jobs?

For repeat residential work under a few tens of thousands of dollars — service calls, replacements, seasonal maintenance, punch lists, interior painting, a bathroom — a clear written agreement covering scope, exclusions, price, schedule, change orders and payment is enormously better than what most contractors currently use, which is a text message and a handshake. That's the gap this closes.

Get a lawyer involved when the numbers or the risk get real: new construction and additions, anything with a bank or a construction loan, commercial work with a general contractor's own subcontract terms, jobs where you're taking a large deposit, work in a state with strict home improvement statutes, or any contract with an indemnity or a liquidated damages clause in it. One hour of a construction attorney's time to review your standard agreement is one of the highest-return purchases a small contractor can make, because you use that document on every job for years.

How do you use it?

1. Pick the template that matches the work. The scope, exclusions, warranty and payment structure rewrite themselves for that trade.
2. Fill in the parties, the property and the price. Use your legal business name — the one on the license and the bank account.
3. Build the payment schedule. Pick a preset or write your own draws. Enter percentages; the tool prints the dollar amounts. It'll tell you if they don't add to 100.
4. Choose your clauses. Each checkbox says in plain words what it does. Leave the change-order and price-escalation ones on.
5. Edit the document directly. The preview is editable — click into any sentence and change it. Once you do, the form stops overwriting your text until you press Rebuild.
6. Print it or save the PDF. Two copies, both parties sign both, everyone keeps one.

What has to be in a home improvement contract?

Requirements are set by state, but the list below is what a well-drafted residential agreement contains almost everywhere, and what a judge in a small-claims hearing will look for:

• Full legal names of both parties and the contractor's license number where the state requires it.
• The property address where the work happens.
• The date of the agreement.
• A description of the work specific enough that a stranger could tell whether it was done.
• An exclusions list. Not required anywhere; worth more than most of the required parts.
• The total price and the payment schedule, with each payment tied to an event, not a date.
• Approximate start and completion dates. Several states require these in writing.
• A change order provision.
• The warranty, its length, and what it excludes.
• Cancellation rights, including the 3-business-day notice where it applies.
• Signatures and dates from both parties, on the same document.

The change order clause is the one that pays for itself

CompanyCam's analysis of why contractors get paid late names three chokepoints, and undocumented change orders is the second: work added verbally or over text, with no proof when the payer refuses to pay for it. It's the most common way a profitable job turns into a partial payment and a bad review.

The clause itself is short. Any work outside the scope requires a written change order, signed by both parties, stating the added work, the added price and any added time, before the work is performed. Two sentences.

The hard part isn't the clause, it's using it. When the homeowner says "while you're in there, can you just…", the answer is "absolutely — that's about $340 and a day, I'll write it up and you can sign it on my phone." That sentence, said calmly, is worth thousands of dollars a year. The clause is what makes it a normal part of the process instead of an awkward confrontation.

Materials price escalation, in plain terms

You sign in March. You buy in June. The price of the material moved. Somebody eats the difference, and without a clause it's you.

A fair escalation clause has four parts. It names the materials it covers rather than saying "materials" generically. It sets a threshold — the first few percent is your risk, above that passes through. It requires documentation, meaning supplier quotes or invoices showing the actual increase. And it gives the customer an out: if the increase is more than they want to accept, they can approve it, substitute a material, or terminate and pay for work completed to date.

Worked example with an 8% threshold. Your original quote included $6,200 of lumber. At purchase, the supplier invoice is $7,100. The increase is $900, which is 14.5% of $6,200. The first 8% — $496 — is yours. The pass-through is $900 − $496 = $404, supported by the invoice. That's a specific, defensible number instead of a fight about fairness, and the customer can see exactly how it was calculated.

Write the threshold on the contract before you need it. Adding it mid-job doesn't work, because by then it's a renegotiation.

How to build a draw schedule that gets paid

One payment at the end means you finance the entire job. Draws split the risk. Two rules make them work.

Tie every draw to an event, not a date. "Due August 20" invites an argument about whether you were on schedule. "Due when rough plumbing passes inspection" is a fact anyone can check. Events also protect the customer, which is why they agree to them.

Front-load enough to cover materials, not more. If the deposit doesn't cover the equipment you have to buy, you're lending money at 0%. If it's dramatically more than the material buy, cautious customers hesitate and some states cap it anyway.

Worked example on a $18,400 bathroom remodel using the 30/40/30 preset:

• Deposit at signing: 30% of $18,400 = $5,520.00
• At rough-in inspection pass: 40% = $7,360.00
• Substantial completion: 30% = $5,520.00

The tool prints those dollar amounts in the contract next to each milestone. Nobody has to do the math twice, and nobody gets to be surprised.

On commercial and subcontract work you'll also meet retainage — 5% to 10% held until the whole project closes out. It's normal, and it's part of why subs wait: DocJoist's 2026 compilation puts construction days-sales-outstanding at 83 days against roughly 60 across all industries, with Rabbet finding 82% of contractors waiting more than 30 days. California's SB-61 caps private construction retainage at 5% effective January 2026. If retainage applies to your job, put the percentage and the release condition in the contract.

The right to stop work

Most contractors have no contractual right to stop, so they keep working while unpaid, and every unpaid hour makes it less likely they ever see the money. The Mike Holt electrician forum has been telling people this for years: "Once you leave without payment, your chances of getting paid go down to next to nothing."

A stop-work clause says that if a draw is more than a stated number of days late, you may suspend work after written notice; the schedule extends by the length of the suspension plus reasonable remobilization time; and remobilization is billable. Seven days is a common trigger.

Include the written-notice requirement. Suspending without notice looks like abandonment, and abandonment is a licensing complaint in a lot of states. Notice, then stop, then document.

The 3-business-day cooling-off rule

The FTC's Cooling-Off Rule gives a buyer three business days to cancel a sale of $25 or more that was made at their home, or anywhere that isn't your normal place of business. If you sign at the kitchen table — which is how most residential work gets sold — you generally have to tell the customer about the right and give them a cancellation form. Several states have their own version with longer windows or extra requirements for home improvement contracts specifically.

The clause is a checkbox in the tool and it's on by default. Turn it off when the customer signs at your shop or when the work is commercial. Read the actual FTC rule and your state's home improvement statute for your exact obligations — this is one of the areas where the details genuinely vary.

Warranty language that doesn't come back to bite you

A workmanship warranty covers your labor for a stated period: if the work fails because of how it was installed, you fix it at no charge. Twelve months is typical; some trades offer two years or more as a selling point and price it in.

What it should exclude, explicitly: normal wear, misuse or neglect, damage caused by other trades or the customer, acts of God, customer-supplied materials, and any work performed by someone else on your installation. Manufactured products keep their own manufacturer warranty, which you pass through rather than assume.

One more line worth having: the warranty is void if the account isn't paid in full. It's fair, it's common, and it removes a specific bad incentive.

Five contract mistakes that cost real money

1. No exclusions section. Everything you didn't exclude, the customer assumed was included.
2. Payment milestones tied to dates. Dates slip for reasons that aren't your fault, and a slipped date becomes an excuse to hold a draw.
3. No change-order paragraph. The single most common route from a profitable job to a partial payment.
4. Verbal warranty promises. "We'll take care of you" is a five-year warranty in the customer's memory.
5. One signed copy. Two copies, both signed by both parties, one each. Photograph the signed page before you leave.

Common questions