It may feel like you’ve entered the twilight zone. You completed your work ahead of schedule and under budget. As far as you know everyone is happy with your performance. Yet, you’ve run into a brick wall trying to collect your final payment. Welcome to the world of contingent payment clauses. Whether pay-if-paid or pay-when-paid, these provisions
Are You Covered for Those Cracks?
It’s natural to assume that if you hear blasting sounds and you feel vibrations, the cracks you start to see in your wall are caused by the construction taking place near your home. The question is then, will this damage be covered under your homeowner’s policy. Lazano surely thought so and he filed a claim with his
Is workers compensation a proper remedy?
Construction remains a dangerous trade, with certain construction jobs being more deadly than others. Take the case of poor Harry. He was responsible for cleaning a cement mixing pugmill. The company operating the mill accidentally activated it while Harry was still inside the mixing box. It was an unfortunate incident which resulted in Harry’s death.
Can You Amend That Claim of Lien?
You decide to file a claim of lien and you ask your bookkeeper to tabulate the exact amount still owed on the job. With the numbers in hand, you timely prepare and file your Claim of Lien. You then receive a past due payment notice from one of your suppliers showing that you still have another amount pending on this job. What can you do? You already
Do You Have a Recovery Fund Notice In Your Contracts?
There are a lot of provisions which contractors include in their construction contracts. But one they best not forget in Florida, on any residential project that is over $2,500, is the inclusion of the Construction Recovery Fund Notice. This lets homeowners know they have an available remedy if a licensed contractor doesn’t perform as required and the homeowner suffers monetary
Should you sign that lien release?
A lot of attention is paid to the requirements for filing a lien, including who can sign one. But little is written about the formalities of when and who can sign a lien release. By way of background, understand that a lien release is not the same as a lien waiver. A lien waiver does
Can You be Terminated for Convenience?
Seems like an odd term – termination for convenience. Whose convenience? Generally, neither party takes any comfort if an agreement has to be cancelled. What may have started as a commonplace provision within government contracts, a termination for convenience can now be found in many private construction agreements. It is generally not very complicated. A statement that the
Renting Your License: A No Go
It happens more often than you might suspect. A friend asks if you can pull a permit for him. He even offers to pay you. Why not, you think. You know the fellow, and the work, he tells you, is an easy in and out. No big deal, right? Well, think again; you may be violating the law. In Florida, there
Recovering Attorney’s Fees: No Easy Task
Construction clients believe that if they win their legal case, they’ll also recover the attorney fees they’ve incurred. But that may not be correct for a variety of reasons. Recovery of fees is dependent on meeting a threshold requirement—does the underlying agreement or a state statute call for the award of such fees? Without ticking
Planning for Construction Cost Increases in Your Projects
“Always plan ahead. It wasn’t raining when Noah built the Ark.” Cost Increase Issues The pandemic continues to trouble the construction industry in many ways. One of the most significant is the erosion to the contractor’s bottom line. The lack of materials due to supply chain impacts, as well as increased production costs, have caused