ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Contracts ?

Pardon the long story and possible threadjack...

I went through the trouble of writing out a proposal (based upon Mike Holt's sample, and lots of revisions over time) for my latest job. Two pages of 9 point font (tiny) and two pages of electrical "floor" plans.

Things were spelled out to the tee.

It was delivered with following statement: "Go over it, if you'd like to make any changes beforehand, let me know."

No changes were needed, except to add for trim out as well. (he had said rough and service only before...)

So, I do, they look it over for an hour or so, call me back, and they give me a 29 page contract. "You start Monday" they say. I say, "You gonna let me read that first?" and he says "it's based on your proposal" as he hands me a pen. So I'm thinking: better sign it or lose it... and then I take the contract home to read it.

Seems, even thought I completely spell out what constitutes a change-order, they can define what is and isn't a "minor change" which "will not effect the price" etc.

Plus there are other concerns...

The project manager went on vacation on Thursday. Another man came to discuss the plans, turns out I had the wrong set, and I've wasted two days hanging boxes. I'm calling them changes... Joe says don't make waves. The GC says we're responsible for phones, cable TV, HVAC and a lot of other things that my proposal says were are definately not responsible for...

At any rate... If both the proposal and the contract are signed, and there are any descrepancies between the two, who wins?

In the real world, if I make waves about this, I probably won't work there (for prime rate in this area) anymore...