Hi Elizabeth,
We are sorry to hear of your disappointment. We were originally hired to complete engineering work and construction of a load bearing wall removal. When we were awarded the work, we scheduled our engineers to visit the property and document existing conditions. During this first visit, the engineer explained the scope of work in detail and you decided to cancel the project as you were worried the project would go over-budget. The engineer was then asked to leave and did not finish collecting the necessary information. After some further assurance, you decided to resume the project. A second site visit was necessitated, which you scheduled for 3 weeks later but expected the construction dates to remain unchanged. We did not charge for the additional site visit at the time, as we made the decision to absorb that cost as part of the larger project.
With the project resuming, we would still need 2 weeks to produce engineering drawings and the city would need 3 weeks to review the drawings. Only after we explained this revised schedule, you asked us to split the project into multiple smaller projects that had not been accounted for in the original scope of work.
Further to this, you asked that the construction scope be removed from our contract while retaining only the engineering scope. However, the construction scope accounted for almost 90% of our work. We explained that the cost of the engineering drawings would change if we were descoped because we would now have to charge for the additional site visit. In addition, the unit rates we originally used for the project would no longer apply because of the revised smaller size of project. Since our expectations were not aligned, we did not move forward with the construction as you initially suggested and offered you the option of continuing only with the engineering work for a new cost.
You agreed and arranged for the drawings to be picked up and we released the drawings in good faith. Once you received the drawings you sent an email explaining you would not pay the outstanding balance. Presently, your drawings are with the city and the building permit is being processed while we remain unpaid for our service. We would like to highlight that our engineering work was delivered within our 2-week timeline from the date of our site visit.
We have attempted to contact you to offer reasonable arbitration with no response. Your account is being forwarded to a collections agency who will rightfully determine whether payment is due.
Thanks,
The Newfore team