Skip to content
Menu

Scope and changes

When the owner asks you to finish early

By Review.LivePublished 3 min readHow we write

On a Monday call, the owner of a new exhibition hall asks whether you can hand it over on 8 May, two weeks before the contract date, because a regional trade show wants it from 9 May. "Put more people on it," she says. "We'll sort out the money after the show."

Temporary floodlights illuminate an empty, guarded work area at night.
Photo: famingjia inventor on Unsplash

Treat it as a change: find out what must be ready and why, price the extra resources, and seek a signed agreement on price, dates and the owner's obligations before extra shifts start. If your contract permits a written direction before price is agreed, follow its procedure and keep separate records. US federal fixed-price construction contracts, for example, list directing acceleration among changes the contracting officer may order in writing, with an equitable adjustment when cost or time changes.

  1. Ask what the date is for: which areas, which use, what finish.
  2. Work back from it: the critical path, the activities that must shorten, and any inspections and occupancy approval the building authority requires.
  3. Price every cost of going faster — a second shift or overtime, supervision, lighting, security, cleaning and lost output — as a cost per day gained.
  4. List the owner's conditions, with dates: decisions, approvals, access, its other contractors.
  5. Sign the change before the extra shifts start: the price, the areas and their new dates, whether a new date replaces the contract date and anything tied to it, such as liquidated damages, and what happens if a condition slips.
  6. Get each trade's priced commitment in writing, and track the work under its own cost code.

Common mistakes

  • Starting extra shifts on a phone call and pricing them later.
  • Promising the whole building when the owner needed part of it.
  • Accepting a date with no conditions on the owner's decisions and inspections.

Action list

When the owner asks for an earlier finish

  1. Ask what must be ready, and why
  2. Work back from the requested date
  3. Price each cost, per day gained
  4. Name the owner's conditions and dates
  5. Sign the change before extra shifts start
  6. Track cost and progress separately

Check your understanding

The owner's representative says: "Start the evening shift Monday; the change order will follow." What do you reply?

Show the answer
That you will start once the change is signed, or once they direct it in writing as your contract allows, tracking the cost from the first hour. Until then, the extra cost is yours and the new date is one nobody has agreed.

Sources

  1. FAR 52.243-4, Changes (paragraphs (a)(4) and (d))U.S. General Services Administration (Acquisition.gov) · United States (federal fixed-price construction contracts) · accessed

Related articles