Legal Question in Construction Law in California

This is an unusual kind of response by a prospective client, and it would be useful to know more about him, i.e., what causes him to be so suspicious, careful and cantankerous? Mainly, however, my reaction is that this is the kind of client who spells trouble, and unless there are special reasons for proceeding with him, I think your best bet might be to tell him adios.

In addition to being an attorney, I am also a licensed general contractor. I give seminars regularly to contractors on how to spot problems before they happen. One of the categories of problem owners are ones who try to re-write your contract. You are looking at nothing but problems with this owner. I tell contractors generally to run away from these owners - decline to do any work for them. But if you still want to take the contract, make sure you pay special attention to every detail of the project and add additional money into the amount to cover the inevitable problems that will happen, and to help keep you above water when they refuse to pay the final payment.

It won't matter to the owner if you agree to his changes or not. He will expect, no matter what the contract says, that his changes are the terms. Again, you are looking at nothing but trouble with this guy. Make sure you are prepared and covered when the problems come up.

This is really not a very unusual type of provision. If you look at the AIA contract documents you will find similar clauses and even a "termination for convenience" option that allows the owner to terminate for no reason at all. If I were representing the owner, I would never recommend they sign a construction contract that did not have some form of "notice and opportunity to cure, followed by termination if not cured" provision. The wording of this one is sloppy, and I would recommend it be re-written to be more clear, but a provision of this type is common.