Construction Clerk of the Works in Massachusetts

The Clerk of the Works is the eyes and ears of the Owner and Architect. He or she is responsible for observing construction and alerting the project team to any deviations from the architect’s designs, or concerns with quality control. Although the General Contractor is ultimately responsible for ensuring their work meets the contract requirements, it is often helpful to have an observer who is free of any conflict of interest.

THE ROLE OF A CLERK OF THE WORKS

The Clerk of the Works is responsible for observing construction and alerting the project team to any deviations from the architect’s designs, or concerns with quality control.

The Clerk of the Works reviews the Contractor’s progress against the project schedule and is often the first to identify construction delays.

The Clerk of the Works will document construction with photos, formal reports, and emails. At the end of the project, their work results in a robust project record.

The Clerk of the Works will review material submittals against the materials actually installed on site. He or she will read the manufacturer’s installation instructions and make sure that they are being followed.

The Clerk of the Works reviews requisitions in a higher level of detail than the architect or lender’s inspector. If an Owner ever finds themselves in a situation where they need to hire another Contractor to finish a project, it is critical that they have the funds remaining to do so. This is not possible without active review of monthly requisitions.

When the Owner and Contractor disagree on the cost of a change, the Owner has the option of directing the work to proceed on a Time & Materials (T&M) basis. This is often the fairest way of overcoming the impasse, but without a Clerk of the Works tracking T&M, the Owner must rely on the Contractor to submit an accurate accounting of the additional work.

WHY HIRE A CLERK
OF THE WORKS?

Additional oversight also means that mistakes are caught sooner, when they are smaller, and that ultimately saves everyone time and money. There are four main reasons real estate developers should consider hiring a clerk of the works on their next project:

QUALITY CONTROL

We believe that robust construction phase oversight pays for itself as watched work just ends up at a higher quality. Once work is in place, there is a huge amount of inertia to leave it in place. If the workmanship declines 10% from an approved mock up, how much of that lower quality work will be put in place before the Owner/Architect notice? If they do notice, will they have the time and energy to force a Contractor to redo it? Will they also be able to force the Contractor to recover any time lost? The additional oversight of a clerk results in problems that are caught sooner, when they are smaller, and that ultimately saves everyone time and money.

INSURANCE

Adequate construction oversight provides additional insurance against bad outcomes. Just like insurance, it’s too late to buy it once you realize that you needed it. Complex jobs generate an enormous amount of information that needs to be understood before an individual can begin to help get a project back on track. Once a project goes sideways, it can take months to get it back on track.

COST CONTROL

When the Owner has a Clerk of the Works that can track change order work on Time and Materials, it relieves the pressure to approve disputed costs. Even when change order work is not being done on T&M, the clerk of the works often has abetter sense of production rates than other members of the ownership and design teams. The clerk has seen much more work go in place than those other team members. He or she can become a valuable resource in evaluating all Change Orders.

CITY REQUIREMENTS

In some municipalities, like Boston, the Owner must ensure the project is staffed with a Clerk of the Works before a building permit is issued.

When the estimated cost of any project is expected to exceed $2,000,000.00 or the project in the opinion of the head of the Plan Review division may be classified as a complex structure, the Owner, Inspection Architect, or Inspection Engineer shall appoint a qualified person to be the Clerk of the Works for the proposed project.

(City of BostonCommissioner’s Bulletin 99-7)
https://www.cityofboston.gov/isd/pdfs/1999_07.pdf

CLERK OF THE WORKS