Read your contract, it should spell out how overages, change orders, etc. are handled. Typically you would have a price quote that itemizes the overages above your allowance and you would sign off on the quote before moving forward. Ideally you would make all selections before starting the build to nail down all costs and avoid surprises, but not all do it that way.

that's the problem, we aren't given a change order showing the cost of each item. Change order just list multiple items equaling up charge. Latest one has $2200. up charge for fans, dimmers, Led bulbs & remote fan controls. we asked for an invoice showing cost of each item but contractor says it's not their policy to furnish invoices.

Well this is different than what you originally said which was do we have to “take his word for it”. sounds like you did get a list of items and amounts, which is not just a “verbal word”. So again, refer to your contract for how overages are handled. Are you purchasing the house at a fixed price at closing or are you cost plus with construction loan and paying on draws, or other scenario? Since you are operating on allowance I assume it’s probably the first, and I doubt your contract is going to function like an open book where you get to dig into every invoice a contractor pays.

Is there anyway you can walk away without costs??? IMO....this GC is trying to rip you off!!!! Walk away if you can!!!! They know around 99.9% of people have NO idea what things really cost and take advantage of it......

Did you verbally agree to a change and later decided to question the upcharge amount?

The reason I am asking is .. if you did agree and new contract formed ... he provided you with the upcharge .. and the total via Invoice as long as the amount is not egregious he is ok.

The GC I used to work for would never spell out upcharge per item.. For example, Lutron dimmer could be $15 on sale at lowes and but $25 commercial version at supply house. Homeowner raved over $35 installation charge on the top of the "rip-off" charge of $25 material + $20 office charge for ordering /scheduling and paying the invoice + (Overhead + Profit) + $60 electrician visit fee, claiming he can installed them for free. So instead builder always charged homeowner flat fee of $100.

If the item needs to be re-worked, you need to call an electrician or two or three if original is busy, send the docs for a change order, spend hour talking to homeowner, spend 15 minutes talking to electrician, visit site to check his work, pay his invoice... Document the invoice and the payment in case electrician will claim that the amount was not paid or not paid in full, or not paid as agreed 6 month later when he is trying to obtain mechanical lien?

> They know around 99.9% of people have NO idea what things really cost and take advantage of it......

And you do? Will you be doing this work for free?

The process for how chnage orders are handled should be spelled out exactly in your contract. If you did not insist and agree to the process at contract signing you are limited to how it is worded. As in your stuck as the horse has left the barn.

What does yor contract state about the process of change order approval?

Standard Response No. 1: Read your contract. What does it say about change orders?

Over allowance isn't necessarily a change order. OP picked out the lights and the total price was over the allowance. I would ask which lights would be within your allowance. But agreed read your contract and it does sound like OP did get some documentation. Not sure what they want to hear the GC doesn't need to give you receipts for everything unless its in your contract.

Look up the price of your lights online (won't be exact price paid but give you a ballpark) and compare to your allowable and see how close you think you really are. My guess is OP spent more than they realized.

Without knowing what the OP's contract may (or may not) say about allowances and change orders, the standard builder's approach is often along these lines:

--Cost of materials

--Cost of labor

--Subcontractor's overhead and profit

--General contractor's overhead and profit

--PIA multiplier

The total is the cost to the consumer.

Really appreciate everyone's comments and will try to cover all questions asked. First our contract states that we will have to sign all change orders before work involved on home can continue. Up charges have to be signed & paid before work continues. perfectly reasonable. As to where we stand on construction, cabinets, plumbing fixtures or lighting is not in yet but all have been ordered. We were told custom cabinets were to be installed Sept. 2...didn't happen, but it's ok ,we understand things can get delayed at no fault to gc. HU-129265525 as to us getting a "list & amounts" , well yes, but only a lump sum for all items on list. As to "open book" we certainly don't have the time or desire to go through all invoices only want up charges explained so we can decide which to accept or decline. Little example to clarify: When I made lighting choices in March 2018, I ordered 133 LED light bulbs. One of the things on the latest up charge is LED bulbs. I think we deserve to know how many LEDs and where are they needed as the 133 covered all my lighting fixtures. Finally, we broke ground in March 2018 and soon after I selected all appliances, stone, lighting , flooring, door hardware, bathroom accessories and plumbing fixtures necessary for our home. Changes were made along the way as to stay in our budgeted amount for each category. Slab was poured in April and photo attached shows where we stand now. Thanks again everyone for your insightful comments.

photo of our home

OPs first example.... light fixtures are common overages, no matter how large of an allowance given. Most of the time, my clients already have a detailed line item list of chosen fixtures with line item costs before I see it. Policy is not contractual.

You really need to walk away from this GC trying to RIP you off!!!!!!!!!! He/she is depending on you not knowing what it actually cost to build a house.

Becky-It sounds like you may have picked out light fixtures at the beginning of the build? But that there was already an allowance item line in the contract? So the GC probably didn't price those out back in March?

Your home looks more like a custom build than a normal spec build style? So when you bid it out to 3 GC, you would have either had a long list of lights/etc you already picked out or they would have line-itemed everything. In March when you got very specific, the GC could have stopped everything and gotten more exact pricing for 2 weeks, or added it to the file and got going getting subs lined up, etc.

My husband does a lot of our electrical, but when we installed can lights in our basement last fall, the total materials per light was around $30(I bought the cheapest-nice stuff I could find). After he installed everything, a quick google search showed normal electrician pricing per can light is around $200. I informed him he would also be doing the can lights on our new build! Honestly, the lights seem easy in theory to install, but it did take a good amount of time per light.

Unfortunately, line item allowances tend to be too low for most custom builds. Sure there are very nice items at the low price points, but not many want to build a dream home and be limited to the $60 living room chandelier! The best thing that you can do it to price out your list ahead of time. If your allowances include materials and install, then you need to know what amount is install. Figure up the retail cost of your lighting fixtures and compare that to the allowance amount.

Do you know if your cabinetry and other items ordered are in line with your allowances?

Becky-you can try asking for a more detailed list of overage amounts by item, this would be the route to go rather than asking to see the contractor invoices. You may or may not be successful. Keep in mind, builders who really want to know their costs and track their jobs well want itemized lists. However, in the real world, this is difficult to get from some subcontractors. Many subs don't take the time to time to prepare a detail itemized price quote, we've had painters submit an "invoice" on a fast food napkin with only the total figure we verbally agreed upon to get paid. Easy to say just find another sub who will itemize, doing that is a different matter in the world of labor shortages.

Refer to Virgil's post, this is generally how the price to the consumer is determined. We only add the PITA factor when handling out of the ordinary items that are more than average installs (ex. professional appliances are significantly more work to manage and warranty of them increases risk to builder).

LED bulbs: it's probable that they do not come with the lighting fixture but non LEDs are cheaper. So clients who want LEDs through out, the cost is greater because you are purchasing an "additional set" of light bulbs. Total waste, but how it works with most of our lighting suppliers.

Don't get lost in being penny wise and pound foolish like seen in this forum too often. Example, pricing out the trim kit only for electrical at the local box store and trying to create your own numbers for what the rest of the total electrical costs to determine whether your lighting overages are "unfair" by $200 dollars is a waste of time. You'll never really know what your builder pays his electrician for all the other things you haven't thought of unless you have an open book contract. Most people who try to put a number to it aren't even in the ballpark to what things really cost. Others just want to complain builders mark everything up extraordinary amounts having never really seen a builders books. I have and know many builders who operate similar, it's rarely the conspiracy theory people so readily believe.

On a side note, rather than worrying so much about the LED light bulbs, I'd focus more on asking the builder to put some hay or other barrier down to keep that orange clay off your white brick. That stuff stains white brick and is a bigger issue than the light bulbs. Washing during construction process can be a necessary to keep white brick white.

We've had numerous issues with being over allowance on things including lighting fixtures, lighting cans, plumbing fixtures, ...

Our team (builder, interior designer, electrician, plumber) gives us breakdowns of everything so that we know exactly how much every item is and can make adjustments.

He has a binder with all estimates, competitive bids and invoices in it that we are free to look at and will scan and email any of them to us.

B Carey the reason we picked gc was because we toured a spec house he built and fell in love with it. Unfortunately it was too big for our needs and not in a location we liked. We purchased a lot and then met with the gc and got a copy of the blueprints for his spec home . I worked for days on the plans and finally was satisfied with reduction in size ( taking out mother in law suite) & rewoking other areas to better meet our needs. After having the plans redrawn to reduce size ,and changed in a few areas, we agreed on a price. We weren't given any allowances for things we were to select until July because gc keep telling me I was over budget. I explained to him that it's impossible to make selections with his suppliers without knowing the prices and stay in "budget". At that time he told his suppliers to give me copies of invoices. That made a huge difference! For example a faucet set i selected for the power room was $1000. Changed that immediately as I certainly don't need a $1000. faucet. In Aug he presented us with an up charge for LED bulbs ,wouldn't give us # of bulbs, just wanted a check for up charge for bulbs. I pointed out to him that there were 123 led bulbs on last invoice and asked why more were needed. We haven't ever gotten an answer and he has informed his suppliers not to give us copies of invoices. As to the cabinets we only added 4 drawers to the original spec house kitchen we're copying (up charge of $800) and glass in 4 cabinets in Butler's pantry , up charge $160. All we are asking for is for gc to give us details on latest up charge. We don't necessarily need to see the invoices as we would be satisfied with him just explaining the items to us. Again led light bulbs are on up charge, only 1 fan was added (he has "fans" on upcharge) and so on. Trying our best to keep a good relationship with gc but we need transparency as there has just been too many things that has caused us to loose our trust in him. Really regretting building this house.

HU thanks for your advice as it really helps to understand things from a builder's perspective. I'm really not that concerned about more LEDs needed just using that as an example to explain why we want clarification on the latest up charge. As to the red clay stains we have addressed this issue with gc & he said not to worry about it because after the sod is put down they wash the house down and then put the final coat of paint on.

opaone, wow, lucky you! Wish all gc were that transparent.

Just my 2 cents.

Often allowances in construction contracts are installed material allowances. So the allowances are not usually just for the items, but all installation costs on the items. Even when they are not the overages are usually done based on installed material costs.

Assuming that allowances are handled as the typical cost plus item in your contract, you should be able to see the actual invoice submitted by the electrician to the builder. In fact, technically you should be able to see his payments to the subcontractor or get a statement from the subcontractor noting that there were no discounts or rebates.

However, I can't agree with the advice not to be penny wise and pound foolish any more strongly. Despite Robin's constant assertions, most contractors aren't there to rip you off. The best contractors are good at watching out for your money and theirs, the worst are not very good at watching out for either. There are a lot of good contractors in between who build great houses that aren't perfect with details. There are also crooked contractors who use fuzzy math to get as much money as they can from you.

In my opinion, you want your contractor to make a profit. Your goal is to get the best house you can, built for a reasonable price. That is just easier to accomplish if your contractor isn't fighting to get into the black with every decision.

Best of luck