Verbal Owner Request, Old Drawing, and a Rejected Invoice
During a tenant improvement, the owner's facility manager stops the electrical lead in the hallway and asks him to add four duplex receptacles in the break room and two dedicated circuits for a coffee machine, saying 'just get it done, we'll handle the paperwork later.' The lead assigns an apprentice, and the crew installs the work over two days, using about $780 in material and 22 labor hours. Three weeks later, the owner's project manager rejects the invoice for the extra work, saying no change order was authorized and the receptacles were shown on an old drawing revision. The contract requires written authorization for changes over $500. The electrical lead has text messages showing the facility manager's request but no signed document.
1. What should the electrical lead have done when the facility manager gave the verbal request?
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Acknowledge the request, but do not start work. The lead should tell the facility manager that the work appears to be a change, that the contract requires written authorization over $500, and that the company will prepare a field change document quickly. He should ask for the scope in writing-an email is enough-and confirm the drawing revision.
Then prepare a T&M or change ticket before mobilizing: scope, material estimate, labor estimate, and schedule impact. If the facility manager says 'we'll handle paperwork later,' the lead should explain that the crew can hold the work for a short time but cannot proceed without authorization. In a true emergency affecting life safety, the lead should proceed only as needed to make the condition safe and document it immediately.
Why not just do it? A verbal request from someone who may not control the budget creates exactly this dispute. The $500 threshold is a contract term, and the old drawing revision is a warning that the scope may not be accepted.
2. Three weeks later the invoice is rejected. What should the lead assemble and how should it be presented?
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Assemble a factual package, not an argument. The lead should gather the text messages, dates and names, photos of the installed receptacles and circuits, material receipts, labor hours by employee and day, and the drawing revision the crew worked from. He should write a short chronological narrative: who requested the work, what was said, when it was installed, and why no signed change order exists.
Present it to his project manager first, then to the owner's PM with the PM's involvement. The lead should not negotiate the invoice alone. He should ask for a meeting, state the facts, and propose a resolution-payment, a credit, or a signed change order going forward.
Reasoning: the text messages help but do not satisfy the contract's written-authorization requirement. The company's best position is a clear record that the owner's representative requested the work and that the work was performed and accepted. The lead should stay calm and avoid blaming the facility manager in front of the tenant.
3. What should the company do to prevent this on the next project, and how should the lead handle the facility manager relationship?
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Fix the process. The company should require a field directive or T&M ticket signed before extra work begins, and the lead should be trained to say, 'I can have that authorized today.' A quick email after a verbal request-'confirming you asked for four receptacles and two circuits'-creates a record without slowing the job. The lead should also verify drawing revisions before installing owner-requested work.
Preserve the relationship. The facility manager is a repeat client contact. The lead should not embarrass him; he should say the company needs a written record for its own books and warranty, not that the manager did something wrong. A brief, solution-oriented conversation is better than a blame email. If the manager signs the change order now, the relationship may survive and the next request will come through the right channel. The lesson is procedural, not personal: verbal requests are common, but unauthorized work is avoidable.