Posted by Nate(DC) on February 19, 2002 at 18:27:22:
>However, due to the size of the project, I need a >general contractor to pull permits and provide some >high-level project management. I realize there is >also a liability and insurance issue as well.
I don’t know the procedure in Boston, so these comments may not apply. But here in DC, you do not HAVE to have a general contractor to pull building permits. If you are the owner, you can get permits yourself and sub out the work yourself. If you don’t want to go through all the headache of the permits and project management, you may be able to get a contractor to do it; you may also be able to hire a construction manager or architect to do those same things for you. The risk is, as you say, that whoever you end up with will either try to do more than you need them to do (and charge more for it), or will not be interested in taking a limited scope of work. Shop around based on the scope of work you truly need and you’ll probably find someone willing to do what you want.
As far as the liability and insurance issues, I assume you will have a builder’s risk policy to cover you (the owner) and the premises. Then you can let the subs deal with their own insurance issues (unless you’re going to use uninsured subs, in which case you’d better have some other form of insurance - either commercial liability for you personally or a GC/CM that does).