Legal Advice on Change Orders

[Ronny Crawford]

Hello fellow BP community!

Does anyone have any experience and advice regarding Change Orders that were completed prior to and without approval from the Owner?

I recently received two rather large change orders on a flip project.  I noticed via photos online that many of the change orders were already completed without my knowledge or approval.

I declined the change orders and have tried discussing with the contractor.  They state that per code and engineer's drawings the work must be completed in order to pass inspection.  While this may be true, my contract clearly reads that change orders must be approved by both Owner and Contractor in order to complete the work.

Am I liable to pay for Unapproved yet Completed work from change orders?  If not, how should I proceed?

Thanks!

[William Murrell]

I am not an attorney, but I have had plenty of experience with contractors.  In our case, if the contract specifically stated, as yours did, that the change order must be approved by the owner, then they didn't really have a leg to stand on when it came to demanding more money.  And as far as "we need this to pass code" then that should definitely have already been included in the scope!  No reasonable contractor should ever give a bid to build something at one price with extra fees to do it to code.  Either you build it to code or you don't.  They ought to know that by now.  I'd consult with an attorney and I would also find another contractor.  This is classic "got you over the barrel" unscrupulous contracting at its finest.  Unless of course your scope spec'ed out something not up to code and he refused to build it.  But that's not the case, right?