I have a question. Say I’ve written change orders the company signs then decided they were not going to pay what do I do next? When they sign the ticket are they obligated to pay ?
1 reply
Jun 1, 2020
Executed and signed change orders become a part of the contract. So, they should be just as enforceable as the original contract you signed for the job. Levelset discusses that here: Change Order Form — Free Template Download and Best Practices. If the owner has agreed to a change but then changes their mind, they may be permitted to eliminate that scope of work through a deductive change order or partial termination. However, more commonly, these issues are handled in a pretty informal manner.
If the owner or other customer no longer wants that work done, and if the work hasn't been done yet, then you generally won't be able to force them to accept your work. That makes sense too - it'd be illogical for work to be done that the customer doesn't want. But, if some of that work was actually done, then you should be entitled to payment for that work. Further, if you were anticipating some profit margin on the changes, you may be able to recover that based on the signed and written agreement.
Negotiating some payment in exchange for dropping the change order/claims under that change order might be a good step to take. All things being equal, though - if the change order hasn't actually resulted in any additional work, then it might be worth considering just dropping it, from a customer relationship standpoint.