Why a takeover is its own discipline
Starting a building from a clean slab is, in some ways, the easy case — everything is known. A takeover is the hard case: a partially built project with hidden conditions, an incomplete and possibly inaccurate paper trail, subcontractors in unknown states of payment, a city permit somewhere in its lifecycle, and a design that may or may not actually work. The new contractor has to reverse-engineer the truth before committing to finish it.
That's why 'we build new construction' and 'we do takeovers' are not the same claim. The right question to ask any candidate is how many mid-project takeovers they've actually completed and how they structure the assessment. A firm that treats your half-built project like a fresh start will miss exactly the buried problems that caused the first contractor to fail.
Step 1 — The assessment: a site walk that finds the truth
A real takeover starts with a thorough site walk, not a quote. The incoming GC reconstructs the actual state of the project: what's installed correctly, what's hidden behind finished surfaces, what was built wrong and must be redone, where each subcontractor stands, and exactly where the city permit and inspections sit. Pereff's rescue cadence puts a team on site within a couple of days of the first call for precisely this — schedule analysis, subcontractor status, lien check, and city status in one pass.
This is also when the gap between billed and installed work surfaces. That gap drives both the revised budget and the conversation with your lender, so an honest assessment is non-negotiable — a number built on optimistic assumptions just sets up the second failure.
Step 2 — The scope-to-complete and revised proforma
Out of the assessment comes the core deliverable: a written scope-to-complete with a revised schedule and revised cost. This is the document that turns a chaotic situation into a plan — it tells you what's left, what it will cost, how long it will take, and where the buried problems are. Pereff produces this remediation plan within days of the site walk.
If the project is financed, that scope-to-complete becomes the basis for restoring the loan. Lenders can't fund a stalled job, but they can fund a credible plan. Pereff is not a lender, but a key part of its takeover work is facilitating the bank relationship — presenting a revised, underwritable proforma so the lender has something real to fund against. Final terms remain the bank's determination.
Step 3 — Liens, bonds, and the no-litigation line
Before anyone mobilizes, the legal and financial picture has to be clean. In Texas, unpaid subcontractors can lien your property even if you paid the prior GC, so the lien situation must be mapped and addressed. If the project carried performance and payment bonds — typically required above roughly $1.5M and always on public work — the surety's role in the prior contractor's default matters too, and your construction attorney should be involved.
And there's a firm boundary: Pereff will not take over a project in active litigation. If the dispute with the prior contractor is already a lawsuit, the litigation has to be resolved or formally closed — usually a release or termination, with a new viable contract in place — before a takeover can responsibly proceed. Pereff will explain those steps rather than walk into the mess; that honesty is what protects you.
Step 4 — Mobilize as GC or CMAR and finish
Once the picture is clean and the plan is set, the new contractor steps in — as the general contractor or as construction manager at risk, whichever the contract path supports. From there it's execution: retaining the subs worth keeping, replacing the ones that need replacing, correcting what was built wrong, and driving the project to certificate of occupancy on the revised schedule.
Pereff brings real takeover experience to this phase. On the KVC Pediatric Dentistry project in Little Elm, Pereff resolved a prior developer's on-site construction errors without delaying the build and unstuck a permit caught in an eight-month city backlog. The signature of a clean takeover is that the project stops feeling like a crisis and starts feeling like a build again — with one full-time superintendent on the job and a contractor who's been transparent from the first call.