What to Ask a Contractor Before You Appoint Them, and What Owners Forget

The questions that change a construction appointment, the ones owners leave out, and how to record the answers so they become obligations rather than reassurances.

The useful questions before appointment are about capacity, people, money and behaviour, and they must be asked in a form that produces a written answer. Most owners ask about price and duration, get a confident reply, and discover months later that neither was a commitment. The failure is rarely ignorance of what to ask; it is asking verbally and recording nothing.

Why these keep happening

Pre-appointment meetings are social. Both sides want the deal, the contractor answers smoothly, and the owner does not want to appear distrustful of a company it is about to rely on. So the hard questions get softened into topics, and the answers stay in a conversation nobody can quote. Everything you did not write down becomes an argument once the site is live and the leverage has moved.

1. Not asking who else the same team is building for

An impressive project manager may be finishing two other jobs. The question is not how many people the company employs but which named individuals will be on your site, on what dates, and what they must finish first. Capacity promises made without dates are aspirations.

• Avoid it by: Ask for named staff with start dates and the projects they are leaving, then write them into the contract.
• Proof it is closed: A key personnel clause listing names, with replacements subject to your written approval.

What it costs you: A site run by a junior while the promised manager closes another project.

2. Not asking how the last project ended financially

The revealing question is the gap between contract sum and final account on the three most recent completed projects, and what caused it. A contractor that cannot answer either does not track it or would rather not. A contractor that answers with a number and a reason is telling you how your own final account will behave.

• Avoid it by: Ask for the contract sum and final account on recent projects and verify with one of those clients.
• Proof it is closed: Reference notes recording the answer, cross-checked with a previous client.

What it costs you: An overrun you could have predicted from the pattern of the last three jobs.

3. Not asking what the contractor needs from you

Owner delay causes a large share of extension claims: late decisions, late approvals of samples, late access, late payment. Asking the contractor to list what it needs from you and when converts a future claim into a calendar. It also tells you whether the company plans, because a contractor that cannot list its information requirements has not thought the job through.

• Avoid it by: Require an information required schedule with dates, and hold your own diary against it.
• Proof it is closed: A dated schedule of owner decisions and approvals attached to the programme.

What it costs you: Extension of time and prolongation claims caused by your own response times.

4. Not asking which trades are subcontracted and to whom

Waterproofing, facades, lifts and mechanical services usually decide whether a building performs, and they are usually bought in. If you do not know who will do them, you are evaluating a manager and assuming the trades. Subcontractor quality is also where a squeezed price shows up first.

• Avoid it by: Ask for named subcontractors for critical trades and the right to approve changes to them.
• Proof it is closed: A named subcontractor list in the contract for the trades you selected.

What it costs you: Failures in the trades that cause the most expensive defects after handover.

5. Not asking how variations and claims will be handled

Both sides know changes will happen. Agreeing the mechanism before appointment costs nothing; agreeing it during a dispute costs a great deal. Ask how a variation is instructed, valued, and recorded, and what notice periods apply to claims. A contractor with a clear process has one because it works.

• Avoid it by: Fix a written change control procedure with valuation rules and a monthly claims position statement.
• Proof it is closed: A change register maintained from day one, reviewed at every monthly meeting.

What it costs you: Change orders priced without reference, and claims arriving without warning.

6. Not asking about safety and workforce arrangements

Beyond the ethical dimension, unsafe sites stop and improperly employed workers create stoppage risk. Ask how many site safety incidents occurred last year, what changed afterwards, whether workers are directly employed, and how accommodation and transport are arranged. The answers describe how the company treats obligations generally.

• Avoid it by: Require a site safety plan, proof of workforce registration and monthly safety reporting.
• Proof it is closed: Monthly safety statistics and workforce compliance confirmations in the project report.

What it costs you: Stoppages, authority intervention and reputational exposure attached to your project.

7. Asking everything verbally and recording nothing

The most common failure is procedural rather than substantive. Good questions asked in a meeting with no minutes leave you with impressions. Written answers, even brief ones, become representations you relied on, which changes both the contractor care in answering and your position later.

• Avoid it by: Send the questions in writing, require written answers, and annex the responses to the contract.
• Proof it is closed: A question and answer annexe referenced in the contract as part of the basis of appointment.

What it costs you: Loss of every commitment made before signature.

A short check before you sign

• Named site team with start dates, written into the contract with approval over replacements.
• Recent projects listed with contract sum, final account and the reason for the difference.
• A schedule of what the contractor needs from you, by date, matched to your own diary.
• Named subcontractors for the trades that carry the most technical risk.
• A written change control and claims notification procedure agreed before signature.
• All pre-appointment answers received in writing and annexed to the contract.

If it has already happened

If you appointed on the strength of a conversation, rebuild the record now. Write to the contractor setting out your understanding of the team, the programme assumptions, the subcontractors and the change procedure, and ask for written confirmation or correction. Most contractors will confirm, because refusing puts the disagreement on record early. Then hold a monthly meeting with minutes issued by your side. Minutes you write and circulate are worth more than notes the other party keeps.

Domira designs, builds and manages projects across Saudi Arabia for owners who are based abroad: land appraisal, feasibility, design, construction, handover and asset management under one accountable contract. Send us the plot or the brief and Domira will put the numbers in front of you before you commit.