A Permit Q.

Expeditor closes the job and will tell you what he needs from the architect and contractor.

Our contract with the architect includes the final signoff. Maybe check with your architect?

We used a design and build company, not an architect. We didn't really have any direct dealings with the expeditor, they arranged everything. We are having a few final-payment discussions with the design and build company and are concerned that they may drag their heels about closing the permits and use this as leverage to force our hand. What are our options in this scenario? Thanks.

Kas61,

What does it say in your contract? If the electrician and plumber both signed off you have very little to worry about as far as signing off the project.if there is no other reason not to trust them you should pay most of the monies owed and keep a little bit (1-2k) until final signoff.

Primer05: Thanks for the advice. The contract is a little vague. It mentions expediting permits, but nothing about signing off on them. The contract with the expeditor does mention closing the permits, but as I said, we have had no direct dealings with the expeditor. Should we contact her directly. I believe the plumbing and electrical work have been inspected and have passed. How can we verify this? The building management is very on top of these things. We are using the gas, electricity and water in the apartment. We owe the contractor very little, but we are holding back the last installment because some aspects of the work were not done to the agreed specification and other (small) aspects of the work are decidedly shoddy. Also ,there are some issues with the payment for the raw materials which came in at double what we were quoted in the estimate, Just out of interest, what is the accepted format for submitting receipts for raw materials? Should all receipts be itemized and have a job reference on them. We are being asked to pay for some things and we don't know what they are. Some on cash register receipts and some on invoices from builder merchants/lumber yards. Any further advice would be most welcome.