Change orders
A change order is how a fixed price responds to something nobody could see beforehand. Some are entirely legitimate. What determines whether you can tell is what was written down before the work started.
What this page cannot establish
- SewerOwner cannot tell you whether a change order is justified
- SewerOwner cannot tell you whether an amount is reasonable
- a change order being permitted does not establish that a particular one is correct
The short answer
A change order is a written amendment to an agreed price, used when work uncovers something the proposal did not account for. On buried work it is a normal instrument rather than a sign of bad faith — but it is only checkable if the proposal said what it assumed in the first place.
The distinction worth holding onto is between a change order answering a genuinely new condition and one answering something that could have been established before the trench was open. That distinction is not made from memory while a crew waits. It is made by reading the assumptions and the change-order clause together, before signing.
Settle three things in advance: who authorises additional cost, in what form it has to arrive, and what happens if you decline. A clause allowing work to continue without your written agreement is the one to ask about.
What to settle before signing
- Under what circumstances can the price change?
- Would I be notified before additional cost is incurred, or after?
- Does the notification have to be in writing?
- Is there a cap, or a threshold above which my approval is required?
- What documentation of the condition would accompany a change order?
- What happens if I do not approve it — is the work stopped, and in what state?
- Who decides whether the condition was foreseeable?
What would change the answer
- the written change-order clause in each proposal
- the stated assumptions the change order would respond to
What to do next
The change-order clause and the assumptions section only make sense read together.
Check what your proposal assumesIf your situation is different
- Work is already under way: Documenting work as it happens
If you want a second read
If you are holding quotes that differ and cannot tell what the difference buys, you can send what you were given and have a person read it. They will say which questions the documents leave open. SewerOwner does no sewer work, sells no leads, and has no contractor network — so there is no job at the end of this for anyone here to win.
Have someone read the quotes you were givenRelated, and why
- During the work
What to photograph and record when something unexpected is found.