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Contractor's Written Notice for Changed Work
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Contractors request change orders, usually due to unanticipated site conditions or to correct or clarify defective or ambiguous plans and specifications. When a contractor seeks to change the work that he has contracted to perform, he is normally required by the contract documents to provide the owner with written notice of the change prior to the issuance of the change order itself. This notice allows the owner time to examine the necessity of the change, investigate avenues to reduce the costs associated with it, and determine what impact the change will have on the construction schedule.
A contractor who fails to provide the requisite written notice may forfeit his right to payment for the changed work. Oral notice is generally inadequate because the fact that it was given can be easily disputed absent evidence such as a letter of confirmation. An owner's actual notice of the changed work, and his acquiescence to that changed work, can form the basis for a waiver of the contract's formal notice provisions. However, without proof of the waiver the notice provisions are likely to be enforced.
Copyright 2010 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
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