Hammarberg, Eric wrote:

>Contractors are busy but should not be tooooo busy and I think yes, insurance has skyrocketed but that has not stopped work from being done. Is it a very small job? Do they have a reasonable "capitalist, imperialist" budget?
>
Insurance... yes, work does not stop. But lately I've been finding that
it never starts either.

I've been negotiating for a few months now a probe package w/ an
architect involving a DDC (NYC Dept. of Design & Construction) project
on a city building where I have worked several times in the past. On my
bid I attached a qualification letter to the effect that the quote was
contingent on their accepting our existing insurance without need of any
additional coverage. I also noted that Additional Insureds would cost
something per. What an Additional Insured means is that our insurance
company would provide legal representation for the folks named on the
certificates. Legal representation can mean a bunch of things but for
one thing it means that if we screw up our insurance company pays for
the lawyers to gang up on us, and them. It would be a real legal cluster
F that we pay to stage. Every time we ask for an additional insured we
have to go through the 3rd degree w/ the broker explaining who, their
relationship to the project, what we are doing and why. In other words
an opportunity is made each time for the insurance company to get into
our business... and trust me they have no clue what our business is
about. (Stupidly I mentioned in one interview that I was helping a
friend edit a video that she had made... south end of Ellis Island...
and it took me a half hour to talk my way out of that error.)

So... the scope of the project is that someone else is to supply the
sidewalk bridge and the rigging and all we are to do is remove the
masonry, let the consultants look in the maximim 2' x 2' hole, then put
the masonry back in place in like 7 locations. The someone else has a
contract w/ DDC to provide scaffolding services... they also have an old
school lineage that goes back to days I'd rather not remember. At one
probe we have to work above a terrace of an adjacent buildng next to
really nice glass curtain wall. Our plan for protection has been a
zero-drop policy and that is what we are prepared for. Suddenly we are
being expected to provide plank and plywood and I say, "No, we don't do
that. Talk to the scaffold guy." I have said no I don't know how many
times on this project and they keep coming back to us.

I told them with the bid that we need a mobilization deposit and they
said they could not do that and I said fine, we did not need the job. A
week later they changed their minds.

How is busy? Even my old company did not show up for the walk-about. I
gave the consultant their phone number to call them. They were a no show.

As we went ahead w/ the negotiations (including an amuzing interlude
where the structural engineer was freaking that they actually meant to
use a bosun's chair to hang with and not an electric 4 x 4 box) everyone
involved woke up and decided that they needed insurance and we went from
one Additional Insured to four then to five. To be honest I'm sweating
after two. Why the F this can't be understood and figured out before the
work goes to bid -- and all the work we have to go through to figure it
out -- I have no clue. It used to be I would not ever write notes or
comments on a bid sheet and nowadays I get irritated and write all over
them... it pisses me off when design professionals do just plain brain
dead things and then act arrogant about it. In this case I asked and got
permission first.

When it came to the neighboring building I told the architect and DDC
that somebody should find out how the neighbor feels about work being
done over their property rather than assuming it would be a piece of
cake. I think last week they finally figured that out.

In the mean time I was told that our insurance was ok as it was and that
they wanted to sign a contract. There is a Holiday embargo coming up on
November 18th and after that if you don't have your permits and sidewalk
bridges & rigs in place you are pretty much screwed into January. All
along I have ALSO been saying that since we bid in summer that our costs
do not include weather protection or supplemental heat. I'll be damned
if I or my crew are going to be out freezing our butts off for cheap.
Then suddenly it turned out that the building itself wanted $7M excess
umbrella -- is is 7 over & above our existing coverage. My response was
that it sounded nice but I'd have to ask my broker. My broker got a
quote and I responded that I could get $5M for $6,800 (more than 1/3 the
cost of the work) but that it was a non-binding verbal quote, time
sensitive and the insurance company would have to have money (not mine)
in their hands prior to my signing a contract.

So then I get a call back that they want to go with the original
insurance that we offered... no problem. Well, no, actually, there is a
problem in that now they come back at me that they want 16 additional
insureds. I freak.

I wrote an e-mail back telling them that they are insane. I said a bunch
of other things as well, I think I remained civil. I told them that I
had absolutely no interest in pursuing the project any further and that
they had better find someone else. That it would take another month for
me to explain myself to the insurance comapny and that they would prefer
to simply cancel our insurance -- as in we woudl be dead. So the
architect sent my e-mail on to the head of the section at DDC and he
responded that I was correct. I got a call back yesterday telling me
that they will go back to the original quote with the offered insurance
and 5 additional insureds and wanted to know if I would remain
interested in the project.

My response was to have Kathy call the architect back... I like the guy
a whole lot which probably does not help things... and tell him that I
have to chill and will call him Monday.

This is only one out of about a half-dozen jobs that are driving me nuts
over paperwork issues. We have plenty of work to do just we can't do any
of it. This screwing around is why people are too busy, and if there is
a client that squeaks funny (the Commie Party of all things -- and I
wonder what influence they have over the insurance cartels?) then I
would consider there are plenty of excuses from a street smart
contractor that can be put up to say, "Leave me alone!"

][<

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