Many Minneapolis residents and businesses engage the services of construction professionals when they want to move, expand or change the structures in which they operate. Construction professionals bring with them experience and knowledge on the best practices for erecting new buildings for personal and business use. When construction practitioners and outside parties choose to come together on a construction project, they often draw up contracts to outline the terms of the endeavor.
Construction contracts, when well-drafted, can provide beneficial relationships to the parties involved. However, when they contain obvious or hidden problems, those contracts can create conflict between the parties. This blog post looks at just a few of the issues that can turn construction contracts into bases for construction litigation.
One problem that can arise in a construction contract is when the agreement is not balanced. In some cases a construction company may attempt to demand that its form contract is used before any services are provided. One-sided or unbalanced contracts can leave one party open to accusations and unprotected when contract or construction disputes arise.
Many construction contract issues can come up when the parties fail to anticipate site and project design problems. Parties to a contract may agree to a particular location or may hold certain beliefs about a project site when they make their agreement only to later discover that it is unsuitable for their use. The same may occur with regard to a building design that cannot be feasibly built on a selected site. A failure to provide terms about such events can turn contractual partners into adversaries when the project goes south.
This post only touches on a few of the many contract-based issues parties can run into when their construction contracts are not properly drafted. During a contract negotiation, parties can take their time to ensure that the necessary and proper terms are included in their agreements to avoid later legal problems. Individuals who require assistance with drafting their construction contracts can choose to work with legal representation on their construction agreement needs.
Source: americanbar.org, “How Construction Contracts Cause Litigation,” Robert C. Epstein