Ryan Carpenter | Construction Law Authority

THE LAW IS THE LAW, AND SOMETIMES IT ISN’T “FAIR”

December 5, 2011

Cases, Contracts, Litigation, Public Construction

Sometimes the law isn't as you would expect. In fact, sometimes the law can dictate a result that you think is unfair. Therefore, it is always best to have someone research what the law is, instead of assuming it says what you think would be fair. As an example, some might find the law regarding the recoverability of home office overhead damages counterintuitive....

So, You Think You’re Protected Because You Have a Performance Bond

September 24, 2011

Ryan Carpenter

Construction Defects

Well, you might not be. While you might have prudently thought ahead and gotten a performance bond from an entity downstream, to protect you from its defective work, the protection afforded by a performance bond only lasts so long. After some point, if you have not filed a lawsuit against the performance bond surety, you lose your right to make a claim and it is as if the performance bond never existed. As explained below, it might be relatively easy to determine the deadline for an owner to file a lawsuit against its general contractor’s performance bond surety, but calculating the deadline for a general contractor to file a lawsuit against one of its subcontractors’ performance bond sureties might not be so easy. A lawsuit against a performance bond must be filed within five years from the date the work at issue was completed and accepted, or the lawsuit will be...

Long-Term Building Preventative Maintenance

May 30, 2011

Ryan Carpenter

Building Codes

Some counties in Florida now require buildings to be recertified when they reach a certain age and require problems discovered during the recertification inspection to be repaired in very short periods of time. Whether your building is subject to such a recertification program or not, it is never too early to implement a long-term preventative maintenance plan for your building to avoid being caught by surprise with costly repairs....