Change orders: get it in writing, every time

Walls get opened and surprises come out. You change your mind about a fixture. The city wants something done differently. None of this is a problem — until the work happens on a verbal “go ahead” and the bill arrives with a number nobody agreed to.

This guide is written mainly for fixed-price contracts, where a change order is the only legitimate way the price moves. On cost-plus, every change moves the bill by definition — so the same discipline applies to the budget: significant changes should still be documented in writing with a cost estimate before work proceeds.

When homeowners and contractors end up in real disputes, an undocumented change is the cause more often than anything else we see.

The one-sentence rule

No extra work begins until a written change order states the work, the price, and the schedule impact — signed by both sides. That’s it. A clear text or email exchange can count, as long as all three pieces are explicit before the work starts.

Good contractors prefer this rule. It protects them from “I never asked for that” just as much as it protects you from surprise invoices.

When it was in the plans all along

Not every mid-project surprise is a change. On a fixed-price contract, if the GC missed something that was clearly in the plans and specs — a beam, a second electrical panel, tile they never priced — that’s an estimating error, not a change order. The price covers the work shown in the contract documents, whether or not it made it into the builder’s takeoff. The GC absorbs their own bid mistakes. (On cost-plus this issue mostly disappears: you were always going to pay actual cost — but a badly missed estimate is still worth confronting, because it means the budget you approved was wrong.)

Where it gets contested: ambiguous drawings, work that appears in one document but not another, or contracts written around a scope list instead of the plans themselves. That’s why your contract should state that the plans and specifications define the scope — and that anything shown in them is included in the price. If a mid-build “change order” arrives for work you can point to in the plans, push back before signing anything; signing converts their mistake into your cost.

If the GC won’t eat it

On fixed price, escalate in order. First, refuse the change order and point to the exact sheet and detail in the plans — most disputes end there. If they hold out, put your position in a written demand: the work is in the contract scope, and you expect it performed at the contract price. Keep paying for milestones properly completed — withholding unrelated payments can put you in breach — but never sign the CO. From there, the contract’s dispute process (mediation, then arbitration or court) applies, and Utah adds two levers: a DOPL complaint and a claim against the contractor’s license bond.

Be realistic about leverage: mid-build, a GC can slow-roll or walk, so a strong legal position is usually a bargaining chip, not a courtroom plan. If the miss is large enough to sink them, a negotiated split may be the least-bad outcome — but that’s a concession you choose to make, not one you owe.

On cost-plus, you were always going to pay actual costs, so the fight is different: the budget you relied on was wrong. Stop and demand a revised, line-item budget before authorizing further work. Ask the GC to waive their fee or markup on the missed items — a fair builder who blew the estimate shouldn’t profit from the overrun. Check the contract for any estimate-accuracy or GMP language that caps your exposure. And if the estimate was so far off that it steered your decision to build at all, a grossly negligent estimate can support a legal claim — worth a consult if the number is big.

The best recourse is the one you set up before signing. A few clauses decide these fights in advance — our guide to protective contract terms covers them for both pricing structures.

What to watch for in the contract

Some contracts quietly allow the builder to proceed on verbal authorization, or price all changes as open-ended “time and materials.” Both turn every mid-project conversation into a potential invoice. Ask for written-only changes with pricing agreed up front.

Change orders are also where double markup most often appears — a marked-up sub invoice with the GC’s markup added again on top. Our guide to questionable charges covers how to spot it.