If a bid call results in the best value compliant bid exceeding the owner’s budget and the owner is unable to award a contract to the to the best value bidder but still wants to proceed with the project, CCDC‐23, “Guide to Calling Bids and Awarding Construction Contracts” provides several guidelines that can be followed to negotiate with the best value compliant bidders.

• Where the amount by which the bid price must be reduced is less than 15% of the lowest compliant bid, the first step should be to negotiate with the best value compliant bidder (only) to identify changes in the scope, schedule, quality of the work and corresponding bid price reduction. Where the owner and best value compliant bidder agree on acceptable changes and a corresponding bid price/time reduction, the changes should be documented as a post‐bid addendum and the contract, based on the negotiated bid revision, should be awarded to the best value compliant bidder.
  
  
• Where acceptable changes and a corresponding bid price/time reduction cannot be successfully negotiated with the best value compliant bidder, the second step should be to invite the three highest value compliant bidders (only) to re‐bid on modified Bid Documents under a new bid call.
  
  
• Modifications to the Bid Documents should be material and be clearly identified.
  
  
• Where the amount by which the bid price must be reduced exceeds 15% of the best value compliant bid, the owner may immediately undertake either of the preceding steps, at its discretion. That is, the owner may negotiate with the best value compliant bidder first or re‐bid on modified Bid Documents without any attempt to negotiate. Re‐bidding should be avoided whenever possible because of the additional time and costs incurred by all parties. Where a re‐bid is unavoidable, the Bid Documents should be sufficiently modified to achieve a reduced bid price acceptable to the owner.

Of primary importance during bid negotiations is that the owner should only entertain negotiations with the successful compliant bidder. If the owner chooses to do otherwise, they should be advised to seek further advice from their own legal counsel.