Skip to main content
Back to Glossary
Contracts & Legalaka: construction change directiveaka: CCDaka: field order

Change Directive

In Plain English

An owner's order to do extra work immediately even though the price has not been agreed upon yet.

Definition

A change directive is an owner's written instruction directing the contractor to proceed with changed work before a change order is agreed upon and executed. It is used when agreement on price or time cannot be reached but the work must proceed. The contractor proceeds under protest and costs are resolved later through negotiation or dispute resolution.

Why It Matters in Bidding

A change directive lets owners keep critical-path work moving when price negotiations stall, but the contractor proceeds before cost is agreed, creating direct exposure if records are weak. For estimators and project managers this makes rigorous tracking of labor, materials, and equipment essential, since the documented cost basis is what ultimately converts the directive into a priced change order or claim.

Example

Facing a stalled price negotiation over unexpected rock excavation, the owner issued a construction change directive ordering the contractor to proceed immediately while both parties resolved the cost later through time-and-materials tracking.

Related Terms

Change OrderClaimModificationContract

Frequently Asked Questions

A change order is a signed agreement on scope, price, and time before work proceeds. A change directive is the owner's unilateral instruction to perform changed work now when price or time has not yet been agreed. The directive's cost is settled afterward, often on a time-and-materials basis or through dispute resolution.
Because the price is unsettled, the contractor usually documents actual costs, including labor hours, material receipts, equipment time, and markups, under the contract's method, frequently time-and-materials. That cost record supports a negotiated change order or, if the parties cannot agree, a formal claim, so meticulous daily tracking is critical to recovery.
Maintain dated daily reports, labor timecards by worker and task, tagged material invoices, equipment logs, and photographs of the changed conditions. Notify in writing that work proceeds under protest if costs are disputed. Strong contemporaneous documentation is the contractor's primary leverage when the directive is later priced or contested.

Need more than definitions?

Get AI-powered bid alerts, automated form filling, and proposal drafting.

Start Free Trial

© 2026 ConstructionBids.ai — A LaderaLabs Product