Getting answers from a slow consultant without making an enemy
Monday's RFI review shows six answers from the architect's team about two weeks overdue. Three hold work in the coming week: a duct through a steel beam, embed plates at a slab edge and a sprinkler main that clashes with a bulkhead. Your two emails titled "Overdue RFIs" have had no reply.
Phone the consultant's project lead about only the answers that will stop work soon, say what each one stops, and make each easy to give: a proposed answer, a sketch or a site meeting with the engineer who holds it. If that fails, escalate in steps, warning before each. Consultants fall behind for reasons you rarely see, such as a fee running low or a question stuck with a sub-consultant, and a list of every late item leaves the urgent ones in the pile.
- Sort the late answers by the work they stop, using the needed-by dates in your RFI log.
- Phone the project lead, not the general inbox, with only the urgent ones.
- Put numbers on each: which crew stops, on which day, how many people.
- Make the answer easy: a proposed answer to confirm, as in RFIs that get answered, a sketch, or twenty minutes on site.
- Confirm the agreed dates in writing within the hour.
- Escalate in steps, and warn first: the consultant's principal, then the owner, with facts and dates.
The call
Common mistakes
- Chasing every late item at once.
- Copying the owner on the first chase, which puts the consultant on the defensive.
- "Any update?" emails with no date and no consequence.
Action list
Before the next RFI review
- Add a needed-by date to every open RFI
- Mark the answers that stop work within two weeks
- Put each consultant's project lead on your phone list
- Draft a proposed answer for every urgent question
- Read your contract's notice clause
Check your understanding
The architect says the fee for construction-phase services is used up, so answers will be slower. What do you do?
