Template: subcontract review checklist (yes / no / fix, before you sign a GC's form)
In one paragraph
A two-page checklist to run on any general contractor's subcontract before you sign it: twenty-six questions across payment, retention, lien rights, scope, schedule, changes, indemnity, insurance, flow-down, termination and the paperwork you owe in the first twenty days. Each line has a yes / no / fix column and the statute that backs your ask where there is one. Beside it, the checklist completed on a real-shaped GC form for a tenant-improvement job, with the three changes the electrician asked for and got, the one she priced instead, and the two she declined to sign.
The rule
The subcontract is governed by its own text plus a short list of statutes you cannot sign away: seven-day payment after the GC is paid unless otherwise agreed in writing (B&P 7108.5), the retention rules including the 5% cap on private works signed on or after January 1, 2026 with its exceptions (Civil Code 8811 to 8820), and lien rights, which no contract term can waive until you sign a statutory release (Civil Code 8122). Your license number goes on the document (B&P 7030.5), and your preliminary notice goes out within 20 days regardless of what the subcontract says (Civil Code 8200, 8204).
Why it matters
A GC's subcontract is written to move risk downhill, and most of it is negotiable if you ask before signing and never after. The checklist turns a twenty-page form into twenty-six answers, tells you which clauses the statute already overrides, and leaves you with a short list to send back. Twenty minutes here is the cheapest insurance in the business.