January 2, 2006

EDITOR'S NOTES

We start off this new year with several valuable lessons for contractors.
1. If you file a complaint, make sure it will stand up in court. A complaint didn’t bode so well for a California contractor hired to build a restaurant.
2. If you include a subcontractor’s bid in your bid to an owner, make sure the subcontractor is contractually obligated to honor that bid. One contractor was left footing the bill for excess costs when the subcontractor backed out because of a miscalculated bid.
3. If you don’t like the terms of a contract, address them at the beginning of the project. Don’t wait until delay costs start piling up to dispute the reasonableness of the fees.
Our final case is a review of an insurance issue we see time and time again; namely, what constitutes an “occurrence” and what role does a subcontractor play in determining that occurrence.

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