We have a project were the Owner hired the consultants directly that is now starting construction and I’m hoping others might share any experiences navigating the RFI/ Submittal/ Change Request process with a consultant that not under your Contract. There is no CM involved, so it’s probable that all of the construction communication will go through our team, and we certainly don’t want to assume responsibilities outside of our Agreement.
Thanks.
There is usually a catch-all provision in the Owner-Architect agreement that says the Architect will coordinate with the Owners consultants. Under such provisions, not a lot changes in the CA process. You still review the RFI’s and Submittals for architectural scope, and if you see conflicting info between consultant responses, or between consultant scope and architectural scope, you work to resolve it, just like normal.
The only real difference is instead of calling the consultant and telling them when their stuff is due, you have to call them and inform them of when you’d like it, pretty please…
I have worked on projects where we were hired directly by the Owner and for all practical purposes things were done the same as if we were retained by the Architect.
As noted the consultant is more willing to push back on unreasonable demands but on the other hand it is not in his interest to make waves. Another reason the consultant may be inclined to be reasonable is if he is interested in working directly with the Architect in the future.