Owner Beware: Construction Change Order Disputes Can Derail Any Student Housing Project

In an ideal student housing construction world, the plans will be clear and unchanged; the weather perfect; everyone timely paid; the schedule followed. In this dream scenario, there's also plenty of time to have the all the buildings fully complete before starry-eyed students arrive with parents in tow, cars full and rent prepaid. But, the real world sometimes intervenes. The fact is that 90 percent of construction disputes between owners and contractors involve disputed change orders and requests for more money, which can blow a budget and also impact move-in (ugh, sorry Mom and Dad). Especially when there can be many parties involved in the dispute (architect, owner, contractor, subcontractors), finger-pointing becomes the norm...and while everyone plays the fiddle, Rome — or in this case the project —can burn.