Probably not. You don't have a relationship with your GC's subcontractors and they are under no obligation to engage with you directly.

Depending on your contract, you may / may not have any rights on the cost, and what's happening with the price increases.

So - it depends. What does your contract say about price changes / allowances / cost transparency?

Many years ago I would not allow my subcontractors to give pricing to the customer. Everything had to go through me so I could add my %. At some point I grew tired of the secretive nature of it and decided to just tell me homeowners what I was charging. That way if a sub let it slip what he was charging, I don't really care. Almost every customer since then has welcomed this approach and they understand why I make a %.

If the GC has instructed his subs not to disclose this stuff then you probably won't get the info. Either way, the GC will know you are asking around and he/she will likely take it personally that you don't trust them. Maybe you don't trust them! I'm not saying that you shouldn't do some digging, just expect the relationship between you and your GC to sour a bit if you do.

Best of luck

Depends on your contract. Our builder face is every single invoice and then charged a mark up on it that we agreed to. But that was set in advance.

So I just found out it isn't in my contract to not have that contact, and at this point not really worried about passing off my builder its to much unprofessional business going on in my personal opinion!

So let me explain we went down in our ceiling height and sq footage, to cut cost. We changed the blue prints to reflect this however the architect only changed the sq. Ft. Not the ceiling heights, therefore the blocks for the basement was still put in at the previous height which was not actually changed on our blueprints which the updated was given to the builder and he said he requested all this. Now he's trying to make us pay for extra drywall and siding but said he would eat cost of bricks only for basement. But it will be 5000! Im like wow well were are the estimates that put that cost up so much then he said well my guess is it will be 5000. At this point I'm ready to fire him. What should I say or do because I'm really thinking that he's trying to beat us and the other estimates was for the higher ceilings and sq. Ft. and he never requote smaller!!

Thank you

Is this a custom home? Do you own the lot? You haven’t really shown if you have control or not

Yes I own my

Lot

What type of build is this, custom? Semi-custom? Tract (developer)? Do you own the land? What type of contract do you have with the builder?

It is a custom

You own the land then?

What does it say in the contract about errors, overages, parting ways etc?

We have a saying our office: "A change is an opportunity for a mistake."

It's tough to connect the dots on this one and suggest where responsibility lies. Hu, did you contract directly with the architect to produce the construction plans or did you pay the builder for the plans?

You likely have a contract with the builder and a contract with the architect, and there is no contract relationship between the builder and architect. This is normal unless you are doing design-build where the architect works for the builder.

Trying to understand - it sounds like there was an error on the contract drawings provided to the builder by the owner, and the builder followed the drawings given to him correctly?

Not mad at the builder but the builder approved the final blueprints and and got our final cost for the change down from all the contractors he said!

We issued him the updated blueprints but they didn't have he oe I didn't notice that the height wasn't changed. We found this out because talking to another contract for the 4time he kept saying 14' when we are at 12' with the new contract I asked him 3 times why does he keep saying 14' if we changed that he just said we did and finally what made us look back at the blueprint is the last sit down the contractor confirmed that he has always been quoting on 14' and has never changed that quote or been asked to change it by the builder qith the builder there to witness. So Now I'm at the point of feeling this is where he is trying to beat us by saying he got rebid for the lower but never did and didn't cover his tracks but still charging us for the higher ceiling until this caught up and made him realize he never changed that with the contract by blueprint. Hope this helps with understanding the issue. So he trying to make us pay for extra to go back to 14' that he said he changed with his contractors to 12'

Thank you

Yes his contractor that had never known about the reduction in height Im assuming never questioned and followed the blueprint

What type of construction contract do you have? Is it fixed cost, cost plus or time and materials?

Your descriptions make it hard to understand what happened with the changes and why. If his drawings showed a higher ceiling then that would be what he used for estimating.

Did they build 12 or 14 foot ceilings?

Are you suspecting that the GC got estimates for 12 foot ceilings from the subcontractors, gave you those estimates, and then built the 14 foot ceilings and is charging you for 14 foot ceilings instead of the 12 foot ceilings?

(In essence, he bid the contract at 12 foot to get the price down so you would move ahead and then built 14 foot ceilings that were still (mistakenly) in the plans and wants you to pay for the 14 foot ceilings you have? And you don't think it's fair because the estimates were for 12 foot ceilings and you thought you were getting 12 foot ceilings at that cost? And you didn't okay the 14 foot ceilings and their extra cost?

You feel like this was a deliberate bait and switch rather than a genuine mistake on the GC's part?

I am not saying I agree with this interpretation. I am just trying to get a better sense of your position.

So the answer to your question depends on the type of contract that you have and where you are. If you have a cost plus contract and you are in one of the fifty U.S. states then you are entitled to know EXACTLY what the builder PAYS anyone, he is allowed to mark up materials by an amount that you agreed to in your contract. All fifty states have statutes requiring that information be available to you at your request. On the other hand if you have a fixed price contract, you are not entitled to know any price.

In any case, your builder can't reasonably be held responsible for a mistake your architect made. Regardless of any conversation you had about changing the plans, unless you provided him with plans that were changed then there is little reasonable argument that he is at fault. He likely provided the plans to subcontractors and they proceeded to build according to the plans. Unless he was the person who was supposed to make the change then he is unlikely to be held responsible for any of the costs.

The fact that he has agreed to eat some of the cost seems generous to me. As for the $5,000, what is the cost of the drywall and siding now? It is hard to comment on the acceptability of $5,000 without knowing a lot more, but I can tell you that I doubt I could add 2' to my home (were it being constructed today) for that.

Were I again a GC, any sub of mine would be polite, take measurements, and tell my customer that they would get back to them very soon. Then they would come to me to ask how to play.

I see that this is a very dishonest and money hungry profession. I like the honest path that D B takes with being honest about the added % he adds, because to me letting a hired hand know you don't trust them should make them trustworthy or know that you are onto them trying to beat you out of your money!

Thank you for time and answers great appreciated!

It’s possible you are poking at this the wrong way. When you buy a pair of pants do you demand to know the price the company paid for the pants or are you content to pay the price they charge you? Things cost what they cost. Part of building a home is establishing a team you trust, having a plan, and following through. It really feels like there is more to your story here to be honest.

Frankly it doesn't seem that the problem is your builder but you.

I think so thanks for your help!

No, you cannot.

Wrote a long reply, but Houzz ate it.

Ultimately, it is your responsibility to make sure the plans you gave the builder included what you wanted.

Calling the contractor and subs "hired hands" as if they are simply labor and not skilled professionals, while saying nothing untoward about the architect who was the source of the error shows you do not respect anyone who does manual labor.

Good luck to you in this time. I would not be surprised if your GC found a way to get out of this contract to work for someone who will respect and value them. If that happens, you will need luck to find someone who will take on your job for a reasonable price in the next year.