Re: Resolving post-construction issues, design errors, dealing | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: Mac & Sandy Thomson (ganeshrmi.net) | |
Date: Tue, 24 Sep 2002 09:59:01 -0600 (MDT) |
Sorry to respond so late to this, but I'm behind in my email. > We'd be interested to know what role your architect played in resolving > post-construction issues. For example: > > What types of design and construction problems was your architect willing to > help fix? Because our architect lives 6 hours from our project he was basically only able to via phone and fax. He pretty much only got involved in resolving design problems and ambiguities during construction and didn't get very involved in post construction problems. > > What types of problems were only the responsibility of the contractor? > > What types of problems were you forced to deal with on your own? > > Finally, did your architect play a role in resolving problems after the > "punch list" items (the things the architect picked out as needing fixing > before giving final payment to the contractor) were all resolved? We had a pretty big post construction problem with our contractor wanting to hit us up for a bunch of change orders. They maintained that the project cost them more to complete than expected. We maintained that according to our contract, that wasn't our problem. Their proposed change orders were not in fact changes in the plans and specs and weren't justified or properly documented. We pretty much had to resolve the issues ourselves with the help of an attorney. We got the attorney involved because there was over $100K in question and some somewhat sticky construction legal issues involved. We wanted to make sure we were on solid legal ground and also let the contractor know that we weren't going to be pushed around unfairly. We ended reaching a compromise in which I think both the contractor and us felt we were making some sacrifice. I think the the biggest single tool you have in resolving post construction problems is cash. That is, make sure you still owe the contractor enough money that you'll keep their attention and they'll stay on the job until all of the problems get resolved. If they're all paid up, it's hard to motivate them. That said, our common house contractor was different from the contractor that did the rest of our project (long story) and we had no problems with him. IMHO, he had a whole different level of integrity and working with him was a joy. All the same, he never got paid for work until it was done to our satisfaction, but he willingly did that without a fuss. Good luck, Mac -- Mac Thomson Heartwood Cohousing http://www.heartwoodcohousing.com "Only those willing to go too far will know how far they can really go." - Chuck Yeager ********************************************************** _______________________________________________ Cohousing-L mailing list Cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org Unsubscribe and other info: http://www.communityforum.net/mailman/listinfo/cohousing-l
- (no other messages in thread)
Results generated by Tiger Technologies Web hosting using MHonArc.