Articles

Bad Faith Contracting Dominick Vivona has a home in a wooded area near Greenwich, Connecticut. In June of 2017, he set out to build a treehouse for his kids. Vivona sketched a design and found an experienced carpenter, Walter Reyes, to do the work for $6,000. Reyes drew plans for the job, pulled the permit […]

Liens vs. Contracts in Connecticut Thirty-one states and the District of Columbia require a written contract for residential work. See my blog post Contracting on a Handshake for the list of states. But the obvious question is, “What happens if my job in one of those states doesn’t have a legal contract? Can I still collect?”

Who Pays for Mistakes You’ve been here before. Every contractor has. Something doesn’t pass inspection. It’s clearly wrong. Work has to be torn out and re-done. The question is, “Who pays?” Was it the fault of the prime? Or the sub? Or the architect or engineer?

Contractor Without a Contract Nearly all public works projects are done on terms set by the public agency. The contractor has little or no say in the matter. It’s only on smaller residential and commercial jobs that contractors get to shape the agreement – offer terms likely to save the day if the job goes […]

Nothing I’ve seen causes contractors more legal headaches than change orders. If you’ve dipped into the pages of this blog over the last ten years, you’ve seen how changes in the work can spoil nearly any job. A New York case decided last month illustrates the point. Here’s what happened. Lanmark Group, a New York […]

Recovery from Hurricane Florence A week after Hurricane Florence passed through North and South Carolina, rivers are still above flood stage, schools are still closed and owners are still assessing the damage. The number of homes flooded will be in the low six figures – not as many as from Hurricane Harvey (over 200,000) or […]

How Does A Contractor Find More Work? A few years ago, I sat down with an architect friend, Bill Mitchell, to answer a simple question, “How does a contractor find more work?” Bill knows construction. He’s been designing and building residential, commercial and industrial projects for over 30 years. Here’s our list of what it […]

If you’ve never met a GMP contract, let me provide an introduction. GMP is a handy tool put to good use by many contractors. Back in July of 2010, I explained why home improvement contractors in six states (CA, IL, MA, NV, PA and TN) use GMP contracts. In those states, time & material contracts […]

Changes in Construction Contract Law — First Half of 2018 So far this year, eighteen states have changed how construction contractors have to do business. Some changes are trivial. Others will affect most contractors in the state. Here’s a state-by-state run-down on the most significant changes in Construction Contract law.

Limits on Warranty Claims. Is this your worst nightmare? You get a call out of the blue complaining about a job you finished many years ago. The caller complains your work was defective – required a lot of repairs, many thousands worth in fact. And the person complaining isn’t even someone you know. It’s someone […]