Omitted work is work removed from a building contract after it has been agreed, so that the contract sum is reduced. It is the mirror image of extra work, or variations that add. The Dutch term is minderwerk. Typical examples: dropping the bathroom tiling because the client will do it themselves, or removing a dormer from the original design.
It sounds simpler than it is. The client’s expectation — “the tiling was priced at 6,000 in the budget, so I get 6,000 back” — is almost never met.
Why you rarely get the full amount back
A contract sum is built up from direct costs (materials and labour) plus additions for site overheads, head office overheads, profit and risk. When an item is dropped, the direct costs disappear, but the fixed costs carry on: the site cabin is still there and the contracts manager is still running the job.
Removing work can also create new costs. If the tiling goes, the substrate may still have to be handed over flat and tanked. Cancelled orders with suppliers can attract restocking or cancellation charges.
Most contracts and standard terms therefore provide that on an omission part of the overhead recovery stays with the contractor. The omission is valued and adjusted, not simply subtracted.
Keeping it manageable
- Put everything in writing. Every change on a numbered variation sheet with description, amount and both signatures. Verbal agreements on site almost always end in an argument at final account
- Ask for a breakdown, not a lump sum. That shows which part is material, which is labour and which is overhead
- Decide early. An omission notified before materials are ordered and labour is programmed returns far more than a change halfway through the build
- Watch the interfaces. If you take an element on yourself, agree precisely who supplies what and who is responsible for the result. If a self-tiled bathroom leaks, you are on your own
- Check the warranty. On a new home with a structural warranty, self-performed work may fall outside the cover for that element
- Value additions and omissions together in one schedule, so at handover there is a single clear balance
Do not wait for the final account to raise an omission. The initiative lies with the client: ask for the adjustment at the moment the change is agreed.
Related terms
- Extra work
- Variation
- Contract sum
- Specification
- Building contract
- Handover
- Provisional sum
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