The recent derecho storm in May and Hurricane Beryl just this week caused severe damage throughout Houston and the surrounding area. The intense winds and flash flooding served as a costly lesson to many contractors and project owners. With the expected active hurricane season on our doorstep, and storms that can strike
*As published in the April/May 2024 issue of Build Houston Magazine
It never hurts to stop and take a minute to read what you are signing. This is especially true when entering into a contract with a new customer, vendor or on a new project. Your company (and your attorney) will thank you later.
Subcontractors
Broad form indemnities are common in Texas construction contracts, even though indemnifying someone for their own negligence is a tough pill to swallow.
In 2011, Texas passed a law limiting such clauses in construction contracts. Since then, Texas courts have analyzed the statute only a handful of times.
The Rule
In a nutshell, the statute
Many construction contracts contain some version of a “differing site conditions” clause. AIA’s A201 general conditions, as well as in the EJCDC equivalent, contains a changed site condition clause. It also appears in most state DOT specifications and federal government construction contracts. Generally, this provision provides for a change order (subject to procedural compliance) when
Orignally published in ABC Houston’s Build Houston Magazine
Construction companies spend countless hours drafting agreements requiring indemnification and insurance for their projects. These obligations are prevalent for all tiers of construction industry members— from subcontractors and suppliers, to project owners. The purpose of this article is to address some considerations in anticipation of a claim
Co-author: Stephanie Snyder-Zuasnabar
In James Construction Group, LLC v. Westlake Chemical Corporation, the Texas Supreme Court clarified the standard necessary to satisfy notice provisions in a construction contract. The Court’s opinion reached two key holdings: (1) substantial compliance is sufficient to satisfy a party’s obligation under a contractual notice requirement; (2) however, if the
So you want to be a public construction contractor in Texas? First you need to know are the rules—and there are a lot of them. There are statutory procurement regimes for different types of public work, different agencies, and different project delivery methods. Different criteria and standards are used to evaluate all of them.
In an article
One the most litigated or disputed issues in construction is that of the change order. Almost every experienced contractor has dealt with either defending against or pursing change orders relating to additional work, time and costs since owners asking for extra or changed work in the midst of a lump sum project is not an
Co-author: Trenton Patterson
It has been months since you have been paid and the general contractor or the owner continues to demand that you perform extra work, perform in changed conditions or work on a compressed timeline with no promise of payment in sight. At this point you have a decision to make. Do you
The winter storm that brought snow, freezing temperatures, power outages, frozen water lines and bursting pipes to Texas, shutting down most construction projects in the process, forced many contractors and owners to take a look that their contracts to determine who is responsible for the ensuing delays and the costs to repair any damage.