When an RFI answer or site instruction changes the work
The architect's answer to RFI 31 on a four-storey conference centre is two lines: "Shafts M1 to M3 are 2-hour fire separations; provide rated shaft wall and fire dampers. No change to contract price." The drywall foreman orders board. The tender drawings showed the three shafts as unrated partitions.
Read every RFI answer and consultant instruction against the documents you priced, and when it adds or changes work, give written notice under your contract's change clause before that work is built, whatever the answer says about price. An answer reads like information rather than an order, and "no change to contract price" records the consultant's view, not an agreement. Built without notice, the extra work may stay your cost.
The US federal changes clause for fixed-price construction, for example, counts an instruction or interpretation from the contracting officer as an order, and treats one that changes the work as a change order only if the contractor gives written notice that it regards it as one. Check at start-up how long your contract allows, whether a direction you do not dispute in writing counts as accepted, and whether you must carry it out while you dispute it.
- Compare it with the documents you priced the day it arrives: the tender drawings, specifications and addenda.
- Test it for four effects: more material or labour, a new method or sequence, another trade or test, or a later date. Any one makes it a possible change.
- Flag it before orders go out: mark the RFI log, tell the superintendent and trades, and hold the purchases it triggers until notice is sent — or, if the contract says to proceed at once, record that work separately.
- Send written notice within the contract's period to the person it names: the RFI, what differs from the priced documents, and that you regard it as a change — see notice of change.
- If the consultant says it is not a change, use the contract's dispute or protest steps in time, not more RFIs.
Common mistakes
- Building first and asking for the change order after the notice period.
- Taking "no change to contract price" as settled.
- A trade starting because the answer came from the architect.
Action list
When an answer arrives
- Compare it with the priced documents
- Test it for more work, method, trade or date
- Flag it in the RFI log today
- Hold the orders it triggers
- Send notice in time, citing the RFI
- Get trade prices by a set date
Check your understanding
A site instruction swaps the specified standard paint colour for a custom one and says nothing about cost. The painter says tinting adds 12 per cent. What do you do before the painter orders?
