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Me By JeremyWyatt
What You Need to Know About Change Orders and Getting the Compensation You Are Owed
Here's another example: A concrete contractor is hired to do a job in August, but the project gets delayed and the concrete contractor receives a change order to do the work in January instead. Now, the contractor must take on additional expenses to maintain the integrity of the concrete. This may mean adding chemicals to the mixture to avoid premature curing. They may also need heaters and heated blankets to keep the concrete at a certain temperature during the fall and winter months. All of that means additional costs and effort.
Anyone who has worked in the construction industry for any length of time is familiar with change orders, or instructions to do something different or in addition to what you were originally contracted to do. Change orders can range from simple “do this additional work” changes to incredibly complicated impact and delay claims. While change orders are commonplace, problems often arise when it comes to securing proper compensation for the changes in your work.
2. The Cost of Change Orders
1. The Challenge of Change Orders
Over time, the costs add up. Different conditions on the project change your scope of work. Once the scope changes, you expect the compensation to reflect that change. Depending on the project, the change could impact you to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars, or more. The problem faced by many contractors is the fact that modern contracts require you to do the additional changed work, but compensation may be based on arcane and difficult-to-follow change order provisions.
Change orders can affect virtually any part of a project. For example, say an electrical contractor is ordered to wire floors 2, 3, and 4. While on the project, a change order comes in from the general contractor: Wire floor 5. This is a simple change order resulting from an obvious change to the scope of work. It’s likely the electrician will be able to successfully bill the general contractor for the change. However, as contractors know all too well, it’s rarely that simple. Other factors are likely to come up over the course of a job. Any given construction project is laden with variables, which result in changes through the project.
To complicate matters further, change orders (and the uncertainty surrounding compensation for them) can lead
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jwyatt@harrisonlawgroup.com
www.HarrisonLawGroup.com
(410) 832-0000
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