> *Makes you wonder whether the term "Contractor" is actually an
> abbreviation for "Contract Breaker."    *

Ralph,

May I rant now?

Contracts go both ways. When I encounter scope creep... meaning that
suddenly now that the contract is signed everyone who does not have to
pay for it starts pushing and saying there is more to the work than
there was before the contract was signed, then I'm not too sure who is
breaking what.

One reason I do not like working on residential work is that homeowners
rarely understand what a contract is. And if they do I've found that the
wealthy ones cheat something terrible. You set the crew up to fix the
sidewalk, or whatever, and next thing you know the lady of the house has
them painting shutters sort of thing. Or the idiot that thinks we put a
nail through his concrete ceiling wants his apartment painted. Or the
newlywed who wants to cash in on the goddamn awful looking bowl that
they got so they claim that it was sitting in the open window and we
chipped it , a nice $500 gift. Too much of this sort of crap and the
good contractors run away. Or you do a fine job and then the client does
not want to pay... that is a breech of contract.

Contractors break contracts because people break contracts. When an
architect stands up to a client and says that a contract should be
honored, when the client is trying to con the contractor, then the
architect has my respect. It is when the architect looks to CYA and
boondoggles the contractor unfairly that I think they should go to hell.
Blame the system, not the contractor.

][<en

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