Cost Plus Contract - Who pays for Rental of Scaffolding?

[wooger]

Good day to all,

As a management team (consultant), if a contract is in cost plus contract who should pay the rental of scaffolding as needed in the project, the owner or the general contractor? and why?

 

[Randy]

Who ever is to get billed for the contract, that's where the "+" comes in

 

[wooger]

So you mean to say, it should be the owner not the general contractor? The general contractor must provide scaffolding because it is his basic tool to erect the building project. Why should the owner shouldering such needed tool for the general contractor? If this is the case we better select general contractor having such scaffolding to minimize our expenses such as rental of scaffolding. What do you think?

 

[Pancho]

As a management team (consultant), if a contract is in cost plus contract who should pay the rental of scaffolding as needed in the project, the owner or the general contractor? and why?

Contracts can be written to say anything the parties can both legally agree to. Designating a contract "cost-plus", by itself, doesn't say anything about who supplies and pays for structural rebar, soil removal, sanitary reclaim, or, indeed, scaffold rental.

To determine who does what in a contract you have to look at the scope, not its type. The scope should be as detailed as possible. It should spell out who buys from and pays subcontractors and suppliers. The scaffold guys are one of those, and the contract should clearly state how they are hired and paid.

"Cost plus" means, usually, that the contractor gets paid the cost he spends plus an additional fee. The additional fee may be a percentage of total costs, or a fixed amount, or anything else that, again, the parties dream of and agree to. Some contracts have specific provisions for owner-supplied items. These would then be bought and paid for by the owner. The contractor may or may not earn a fee on those, again depending on what the parties agreed to.

So if you are still writing your contract, make sure you spell out who hires the scaffold guys, who pays them, and whether a fee is due to the contractor for that work. If the contract is already written, then read the scope to find out who does what.

 

[wooger]

Well before we finalize the agreement, we want to be sure if we the owner will shoulder the rental of scaffolding because from our point of view it should be the general contractor because we believed that it is his basic tool needed in erecting the proposed building.

 

[harry]

.................... The general contractor must provide scaffolding because it is his basic tool to erect the building project. ..................

How can you not pay for something used to carry out certain parts of the project? At a minimum, you need to pay for the rental of the scaffold (equipment or tool as you called it) and the work involved in the erection for use and dismantling and removal away from site after use.

As for costing, they can be included into the items such as brick works, plastering or other erection works or even preliminaries. However, in a competitive bidding, organizations may choose not to charge any items of the cost. Even if you vary the contract, it will be charged either here or there because it is a 'cost' - no two ways about it.

Also be aware that the contractors staff employed directly to supervise the project, down to the facilities such as toilet and toilet paper are paid by the project owner through the 'preliminaries'.

 

[harry]

........................ Why should the owner shouldering such needed tool for the general contractor? ....................

I don't know how far has safety laws developed in your area but nowadays, many contractors don't own scaffold anymore. Scaffolding has become a highly specialized area in many countries (especially for high rise buildings) where you need a certified professional engineer to first certify that its design is acceptable and next the erected structure is structurally sound. And then you need a certified 'Erector' who erects the whole scaffold and when completed, a safety guy needs to certify that it is according the the approved plans and therefore safe for use.

So no, not all contractors own scaffolds and they are certainly not a contractors 'tool'. Many now outsourced to specialist and it is not cheap (at least in my area).

 

[Kales Veggie]

Good day to all,

As a management team (consultant), if a contract is in cost plus contract who should pay the rental of scaffolding as needed in the project, the owner or the general contractor? and why?

Not enough information.

Who is the owner?
Who is the general contractor?
Who got awarded the contract?
Who is the management team, who do they work for?

Seems to me that the subcontracting / working out the details was done poorly. (if there was subcontracting)

 

[somashekar]

if a contract is in cost plus contract who should pay the rental of scaffolding as needed in the project,

The general contractor pays the rental and claims the same with bills from the owner during his payment schedules. This comes under the head of 'costs' and the contractors charges are the 'plus'.
It must be cost-plus contract
A cost-plus contract, also termed a cost reimbursement contract, is a contract where a contractor is paid for all of its allowed expenses to a set limit plus additional payment to allow for a profit.[1] Cost-reimbursement contracts contrast with fixed-price contract, in which the contractor is paid a negotiated amount regardless of incurred expenses. Cost-plus contracts first came into use in the United States during the World Wars to encourage wartime production by large American companies.
... from the Wiki

 

[Randy]

Try this thought on for size...Is there any reason why you can't review the contract to determine who pays for what?