Columbus Ohio Building Expert Directory

No Choice between Homeowner Protection and Bankrupt Developers?

February 10, 2012 — CDJ STAFF

Donna DiMaggio Berger, writing in the Sun Sentinel argues those may be the only current choices in Florida. A recent court case, Lakeview Reserve HOA v. Maronda Homes has caused a swift response from the legislators. Ms. Berger notes that the construction defect bill, HB 1013, “would take away a homeowner’s rights to pursue a developer for defects to the driveways, roads, sidewalks, utilities, drainage areas and other so-called ‘off-site’ improvements.” The alternative? She notes that applying the Maronda decision would “bankrupt developers who don’t build defect-free roads and sidewalks.”

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Jury's Verdict for Loss Caused by Collapse Overturned

September 18, 2023 — Tred R. Eyerly - Insurance Law Hawaii
The Florida Court of Appeal overturned the jury's verdict findng loss caused by collapse. Universal Prop. & Cas. Ins. Co. v. Caboverde, 2023 Fla. App. LEXIS 4474 (Fla. Ct. App. June 28, 2023). The insured homeowners had two claims. One was a 2016 ceiling collapse; the second was loss caused by Hurricane Irma in 2019. The homeowners' policy covered collapse defined as "an abrupt falling down or caving in of a building or any part of a building with the result that the building . . . cannot be occupied for its intended purpose." Collapse had to be caused by, among other things, decay or insect damage that was hidden from view. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Tred R. Eyerly, Damon Key Leong Kupchak Hastert
Mr. Eyerly may be contacted at te@hawaiilawyer.com

San Diego: Compromise Reached in Fee Increases for Affordable Housing

October 01, 2014 — Beverley BevenFlorez-CDJ STAFF
A San Diego City Council committee has forwarded a revised plan to increase affordable housing in the city, which reduces the linkage fees increases, reported the U-T San Diego. The first proposal would have increased linkage fees by five times, while this new plan doubles current fees. The Times of San Diego reported that “[t]he fee had been halved in 1996 as an economic stimulus and was supposed to be reviewed annually, but wasn't.” However, Andrea Tevlin, the city of San Diego’s Independent Budget Analyst, estimated that “costs on developers would have jumped 400 percent to more than 700 percent, depending on the type of project.” The new proposal also contains exemptions for “developers of manufacturing facilities, warehouses and nonprofit hospitals from paying any fees at all,” according to U-T San Diego. “Developers of research and science-related projects would still have to pay fees, but they would be exempt from the proposed increase.” However, not everyone is satisfied by the compromise. “While the November 2013 proposal went too far, this new proposal doesn’t go far enough,” Tevlin told U-T San Diego. The vote had been deadlocked, 2-2, but will be forwarded to the main council because Republican Lori Zapf, committee chair, could break the tie. The new plan “created jointly by the San Diego Housing Commission and a group of business leaders called the Jobs Coalition, would increase the linkage fees’ annual yield from $2.2 million to an estimated $3.7 million and allow construction of 37 affordable housing units per year instead of 22,” U-T San Diego reported. Read the full story, U-T San Diego... Read the full story, Times of San Diego... Read the court decision
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Insurer Must Pay for Matching Siding of Insured's Buildings

December 02, 2019 — Tred R. Eyerly - Insurance Law Hawaii
The Seventh Circuit found that the insurer was obligated to pay for siding of a building that was not damaged by hail so that it matched the replaced damaged portions of the siding. Windridge of Naperville Condominium Association v. Philadelphia Indem. Ins. Co., 2019 U.S. App. 23607 (7th Cir. Aug. 7, 2019). A hail and wind storm damaged buildings owned by Windridge. The storm physically damaged the aluminum siding on the buildings' sought and west sides. Philadelphia Indemnity, Windridge's insurer, contended that it was only required to replace the siding on those sides. Windridge argued that replacement siding that matched the undamaged north and east elevations was no longer available, so Philadelphia had to replace the siding on all four sides of the buildings to that all of the siding matched. Windridge sued and moved for summary judgment. The district court ruled that matching was required. The only sensible result was to treat the damage as having occurred to the building's siding as a whole. The policy was a replacement-cost policy. Philadelphia promised to "pay for direct physical 'loss' to 'Covered Property' caused by or resulting from" the storm, with the amount of loss being "the cost to replace the lost or damaged property with other property . . . of comparable material and quality . . . and . . . used for the same purpose." The loss payment provision offered four different measures for loss, leaving Philadelphia free to choose the least expensive: (1) pay the value of the lost or damaged property; (2) pay the cost of repairing or replacing the lost or damaged property; (3) take all or any part of the property at an agreed or appraised value; or (4) repair, rebuild or replace the property with other property of like kind and quality. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Tred R. Eyerly, Damon Key Leong Kupchak Hastert
Mr. Eyerly may be contacted at te@hawaiilawyer.com

Construction-Industry Clients Need Well-Reasoned and Clear Policies on Recording Zoom and Teams Meetings

June 19, 2023 — Stu Richeson - The Dispute Resolver
The use of Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and similar communication platforms has become increasingly common in the construction industry. While these platforms can greatly facilitate communication between project participants, they potentially create a source of ESI – electronically stored information – that must be understood and considered by the businesses using those systems. Businesses using Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and similar platforms should have policies in place to address whether and why to record video conferences, how long to preserve any recorded meetings, and retention policies for instant messaging systems. The failure to adopt appropriate policies could prove quite costly in any future litigation or criminal investigation. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37(e) sets out the duty to preserve ESI and provides significant penalties for failing to do so once litigation is anticipated. It is important to note: there is generally no obligation to create ESI, such as recording Zoom or Teams meetings. At the same time, if the ESI is created but litigation is not anticipated, businesses are generally free to establish their own retention policy for that ESI. However, once litigation is anticipated, potential litigants have the obligation to preserve the ESI and, in connection therewith, to conduct a reasonable search for relevant information (to ensure its proper preservation). Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Stu Richeson, Phelps
Mr. Richeson may be contacted at stuart.richeson@phelps.com

Nevada Senate Minority Leader Gets Construction Defect Bill to Committee

April 03, 2013 — CDJ STAFF
The Las Vegas Sun reports that Michael Roberson, the lead Republican in the Nevada Senate, managed to get his construction defect reform bill scheduled for a hearing. Previously, the Senate Democrats had determined that all bills pertaining to construction defect legislation would be heard by the Senate Judiciary Committee. However, Roberson managed to convince Kelvin Atkinson, the chair of the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee, to add his bill to the text a mortgage lending measure under consideration by that committee. Roberson had previously submitted his bill to the Judiciary Committee. Senator Tick Segerblom has not scheduled the bill for a hearing and is reported to be an opponent of the bill. While Roberson characterizes the bill as making things better for homebuilders, Segerblom sees it as making things worse for homeowners. “That’s not going to happen,” Seberblom told the Las Vegas Sun. Although the senate voted to send the bill to the Commerce and Labor committee, it still may not get a hearing. Segerblom said he did not know if the bill would be heard in his committee. “We’ve got 60 or more bills to hear and if there’s nothing new in there to change the world, I don’t know why we would hear it.” Atkinson said he has “no appetite to hear the bill.” Read the court decision
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Design, Legal and Accounting all Fight a War on Billable Hours After the Advent of AI

June 10, 2024 — Jeff Yoders - Engineering News-Record
Billable hours have long been the professional services standard by which architects, engineers, lawyers and accountants all get paid. But What if that effort wasn’t from human toil at all? Artificial Intelligence is already chipping away at the venerable billable hours business model, completing in just minutes or seconds tasks that would take humans hours. As these tools grow more efficient and accurate, many firms are having to reevaluate how they allocate their resources, and project delivery practices may have to evolve as well. Reprinted courtesy of Jeff Yoders, Engineering News-Record Mr. Yoders may be contacted at yodersj@enr.com Read the full story... Read the court decision
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A New Way to Design in 3D – Interview with Pouria Kay of Grib

August 24, 2017 — Aarni Heiskanen - AEC Business
In this podcast interview with Pouria Kay, CEO and Co-founder at Grib, we talk about the startup’s new, intuitive 3D design tool. Grib® is a cloud–based software that turns a mobile device into a universal controller. With Grib, both young and professional designers can sketch complex objects without first having to learn cumbersome 3D software. You work intuitively in actual 3D space and interact with your environment using augmented reality. All you need is pen, paper, and your mobile device. You can share models with friends, order a print, or export them if needed. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Aarni Heiskanen, AEC Business
Mr. Heiskanen may be contacted at info@aepartners.fi

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