BERT HOWE
  • Nationwide: (800) 482-1822    
    concrete tilt-up building expert Seattle Washington parking structure building expert Seattle Washington mid-rise construction building expert Seattle Washington tract home building expert Seattle Washington landscaping construction building expert Seattle Washington production housing building expert Seattle Washington office building building expert Seattle Washington custom homes building expert Seattle Washington condominiums building expert Seattle Washington industrial building building expert Seattle Washington hospital construction building expert Seattle Washington retail construction building expert Seattle Washington institutional building building expert Seattle Washington townhome construction building expert Seattle Washington condominium building expert Seattle Washington housing building expert Seattle Washington casino resort building expert Seattle Washington structural steel construction building expert Seattle Washington high-rise construction building expert Seattle Washington Medical building building expert Seattle Washington Subterranean parking building expert Seattle Washington low-income housing building expert Seattle Washington
    Seattle Washington construction expertsSeattle Washington construction code expert witnessSeattle Washington construction claims expert witnessSeattle Washington construction cost estimating expert witnessSeattle Washington expert witness roofingSeattle Washington OSHA expert witness constructionSeattle Washington delay claim expert witness
    Arrange No Cost Consultation
    Building Expert Builders Information
    Seattle, Washington

    Washington Builders Right To Repair Current Law Summary:

    Current Law Summary: (SB 5536) The legislature passed a contractor protection bill that reduces contractors' exposure to lawsuits to six years from 12, and gives builders seven "affirmative defenses" to counter defect complaints from homeowners. Claimant must provide notice no later than 45 days before filing action; within 21 days of notice of claim, "construction professional" must serve response; claimant must accept or reject inspection proposal or settlement offer within 30 days; within 14 days following inspection, construction pro must serve written offer to remedy/compromise/settle; claimant can reject all offers; statutes of limitations are tolled until 60 days after period of time during which filing of action is barred under section 3 of the act. This law applies to single-family dwellings and condos.


    Building Expert Contractors Licensing
    Guidelines Seattle Washington

    A license is required for plumbing, and electrical trades. Businesses must register with the Secretary of State.


    Building Expert Contractors Building Industry
    Association Directory
    MBuilders Association of King & Snohomish Counties
    Local # 4955
    335 116th Ave SE
    Bellevue, WA 98004

    Seattle Washington Building Expert 10/ 10

    Home Builders Association of Kitsap County
    Local # 4944
    5251 Auto Ctr Way
    Bremerton, WA 98312

    Seattle Washington Building Expert 10/ 10

    Home Builders Association of Spokane
    Local # 4966
    5813 E 4th Ave Ste 201
    Spokane, WA 99212

    Seattle Washington Building Expert 10/ 10

    Home Builders Association of North Central
    Local # 4957
    PO Box 2065
    Wenatchee, WA 98801

    Seattle Washington Building Expert 10/ 10

    MBuilders Association of Pierce County
    Local # 4977
    PO Box 1913 Suite 301
    Tacoma, WA 98401

    Seattle Washington Building Expert 10/ 10

    North Peninsula Builders Association
    Local # 4927
    PO Box 748
    Port Angeles, WA 98362
    Seattle Washington Building Expert 10/ 10

    Jefferson County Home Builders Association
    Local # 4947
    PO Box 1399
    Port Hadlock, WA 98339

    Seattle Washington Building Expert 10/ 10


    Building Expert News and Information
    For Seattle Washington


    “But I didn’t know what I was signing….”

    Policy Reformed to Add New Building Owner as Additional Insured

    When Coronavirus Cases Spike at Construction Jobsites

    Top Developments March 2024

    South Carolina Supreme Court Finds that Consequential Damage Arise From "Occurrence"

    Supreme Court Overrules Longstanding Decision Supporting Collection of Union Agency Fees

    Flexible Seattle Off-Ramp Would Retain Shape in Quake

    Hunton Insurance Group Advises Policyholders on Issues That Arise With Wildfire Claims and Coverage – A Seven-Part Wildfire Insurance Coverage Series

    Too Late for The Blame Game: Massachusetts Court Holds That the Statute of Repose Barred a Product Manufacturer from Seeking Contribution from a Product Installer

    RDU Terminal 1: Going Green

    Privileged Communications With a Testifying Client/Expert

    No Coverage Under Anti-Concurrent Causation Clause

    Can’t Get a Written Change Order? Document, Document, Document

    OSHA Penalties—What Happened with International Nutrition

    Asbestos Exclusion Bars Coverage

    Gaps in Insurance Created by Complex Risks

    Gen Xers Choose to Rent rather than Buy

    School Blown Down by Wind Still Set to Open on Schedule

    Ownership is Not a Conclusive Factor for Ongoing Operations Additional Insured Coverage

    This New Indicator Shows There's No Bubble Forming in U.S. Housing

    Appellate Attorney’s Fees and the Significant Issues Test

    Indemnitor Owes Indemnity Even Where Indemnitee is Actively Negligent, California Court Holds

    Construction Firm Settles Suit Over 2012 Calif. Wildfire

    Coverage Article - To Settle or Not To Settle?

    New Law Impacting Florida’s Statute of Repose

    Daiwa House to Invest 150 Billion Yen in U.S. Rental Housing

    Capitol View-Corridor Restrictions Affect Massing of Austin’s Tallest Tower

    Temporary Obstructions Are a Permanent Problem Under the Americans with Disabilities Act

    Coverage Rejected Under Owned Property and Alienated Property Exclusions

    Turkey to Start Building 200,000 Homes in March, Erdogan Says

    How the Election Could Affect the Housing Industry: Steven Cvitanovic Authors Construction Today Article

    Texas and Georgia Are Paying the Price for Sprawl

    Construction Litigation Roundup: “It’s One, Two… Eight Strikes: You’re Out!”

    The Contingency Fee Multiplier (For Insurance Coverage Disputes)

    Anti-Assignment Provision Unenforceable in Kentucky

    Lien Law Change in Idaho

    EPA Announces that January 2017 Revised RMP Rules are Now Effective

    Reports of the Death of SB800 are Greatly Exaggerated – The Court of Appeal Revives Mandatory SB800 Procedures

    PSA: Virginia Repeals Its Permanent COVID-19 Safety Standard

    Real Estate & Construction News Roundup (05/17/23) – A Flop in Flipping, Plastic Microbes and Psychological Hard Hats

    Housing Starts Rebound in U.S. as Inflation Eases: Economy

    Arbitration and Mediation: What’s the Difference? What to Expect.

    Bad Faith Claim For Independent Contractor's Reduced Loss Assessment Survives Motion to Dismiss

    Contractor Jailed for Home Repair Fraud

    Notes from the Nordic Smart Building Convention

    Dangerous Condition, Dangerous Precedent: California Supreme Court Expands Scope of Dangerous Condition Liability Involving Third Party Negligent/Criminal Conduct

    Supreme Court of New York Denies Motion in all but One Cause of Action in Kikirov v. 355 Realty Assoc., et al.

    HUD Homeownership Push to Heed Lessons From Crisis, Castro Says

    Res Judicata Bars Insured from Challenging Insurer's Use of Schedule to Deduct Depreciation from the Loss

    CA Supreme Court Set to Rule on Important Occurrence Issue Certified by Ninth Circuit
    Corporate Profile

    SEATTLE WASHINGTON BUILDING EXPERT
    DIRECTORY AND CAPABILITIES

    The Seattle, Washington Building Expert Group at BHA, leverages from the experience gained through more than 7,000 construction related expert witness designations encompassing a wide spectrum of construction related disputes. Drawing from this considerable body of experience, BHA provides construction related trial support and expert services to Seattle's most recognized construction litigation practitioners, commercial general liability carriers, owners, construction practice groups, as well as a variety of state and local government agencies.

    Building Expert News & Info
    Seattle, Washington

    Flying Solo: How it Helps My Construction Clients

    February 18, 2015 —
    Two and a half years ago, on July 1, 2010, I opened my solo practice. At the time, I really had no insight into how big this change would be from a positive, customer service, perspective. When I made the decision to go solo with my construction law practice, I knew I wanted to have flexibility to serve my client base of contractors and subcontractors in Virginia. I started some flat rate billing and had the ability to take cases that were below the dollar value of those that my old firm was willing to take. I also knew that I would be a master of my own destiny for better or worse (and it has been much more of the former than the latter). What I did not realize is the impact that owning my own business would have on my perspective. I have always believed that, in most cases where construction disputes occur, mediation is a great option. However mediation only occurs with conflict. For any business, whether construction or otherwise, conflict creates expenses that were not likely to have been anticipated or built in to the budget. Litigation is not something that most businesses can, or should, build into their operating budgets. Read the court decision
    Read the full story...
    Reprinted courtesy of Christopher G. Hill, Law Office of Christopher G. Hill, PC
    Mr. Hill may be contacted at chrisghill@constructionlawva.com

    Bidder Be Thoughtful: The Impacts of Disclaimers in Pre-Bid Reports

    August 04, 2021 —
    When bidding a project, subsurface or latent site conditions that are not immediately apparent can massively impact the costs of performance to general contractors. Were contractors required to bid on projects without any information on pre-existing conditions, they would need either to be assured that any additional costs would be reimbursed by the owner, or to include significant contingencies for subsurface conditions in their bids. For owners, these options result in either increased risk or increased cost—neither of which is particularly palatable. Owners therefore implement several contractual tools to minimize these risks and costs. One of these tools is providing bidders with a report on latent conditions, often called a “geotechnical data report” or “GDR”, but otherwise shifting as much of the subsurface-related risk as possible to the contractor. In theory, these reports permit contractors to appropriately adjust their contingencies for latent conditions, thus saving owners money. However, several independent and thorny issues arise where site reports provided by the owner are either inconsistent with or silent on the actual conditions of a project site. Hence owners often include disclaimers with these reports, such as noting that the report is for “informational purposes only” or that the report is “not part of the contract documents." Read the court decision
    Read the full story...
    Reprinted courtesy of Joshua A. Morehouse, Peckar & Abramson, P.C.
    Mr. Morehouse may be contacted at jmorehouse@pecklaw.com

    Real Estate & Construction News Roundup (8/21/24) – REITs Show Their Strength, Energy Prices Increase Construction Costs and CRE Struggles to Keep Pace

    October 01, 2024 —
    In our latest roundup, UBS to liquidate $2 billion real estate fund, hotel workers in San Francisco vote to strike, housing market to change after blockbuster settlement, and more!
    • When it comes to buying and selling homes, new rules are about to be put in play, five months after the National Association of Realtors agreed to a settlement over how its 1.5 million agents across the U.S. are paid commissions. (Kate Gibson, CBS)
    • Project abandonments tumbled in July in one of the largest monthly declines ever due to the anticipated interest rate cut. (Sebastian Obando, Construction Dive)
    • Increases in energy prices drove most of the total rise in construction input costs over the past month. (Sebastian Obando, Construction Dive)
    Read the court decision
    Read the full story...
    Reprinted courtesy of Pillsbury's Construction & Real Estate Law Team

    At Least 23 Dead as Tornadoes, Severe Storms Ravage South

    March 18, 2019 —
    Beauregard, Ala. (AP) -- A tornado roared into southeast Alabama and killed at least 23 people and injured several others Sunday, part of a severe storm system that caused catastrophic damage and unleashed other tornadoes around the Southeast. "Unfortunately our toll, as far as fatalities, does stand at 23 at the current time," Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones told WRBL-TV of the death toll. He added that two people were in intensive care. Drones flying overheard equipped with heat-seeking devices had scanned the area for survivors but the dangerous conditions halted the search late Sunday, Jones said. "The devastation is incredible," he said. An intense ground search would resume Monday morning. Read the court decision
    Read the full story...
    Reprinted courtesy of Bloomberg

    Insurer's Late Notice Defense Fails on Summary Judgment

    December 13, 2021 —
    The insurer's motion for summary judgment to dismiss the claim because the insurer did not provide notice "as soon as practicable" was denied. Vintage Hospitality Group LLC v. Nat'l Trust Ins. Co., 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 192651 (M.D. Ga. Oct. 6, 2021). Vintage owned hotels, one of which was struck by a severe hailstorm on July 21, 2018. Vintage was not aware of roof damage until two months after the storm, and did not make the connection between the hailstorm and roof damage until February 2020, when it reported the damage to National. The claim was denied because it was not reported "as soon as practicable" as required by the policy. Vintage sued and National moved for summary judgment. Vintage did not notice the leaks until September 2018. The focus was on fixing the leaks, and connection to the hailstorm did not register. The leaks persisted over the next year and a half. A construction company was called in to evaluate the leaking roof. The construction company advised that the roof had experienced previous hail damage which was causing the leaks. At this point, Vintage connected the damage to the hailstorm. A claim was promptly submitted to National, which denied the claim. Read the court decision
    Read the full story...
    Reprinted courtesy of Tred R. Eyerly, Damon Key Leong Kupchak Hastert
    Mr. Eyerly may be contacted at te@hawaiilawyer.com

    Manhattan’s Property Boom Pushes Landlords to Sell Early

    August 26, 2015 —
    Manhattan property owners are cashing out ahead of schedule. With New York real estate values and rents surging, owners of commercial properties acquired as recently as a year ago are already seeking buyers. In the case of one Midtown site, the developer scrapped construction plans to sell an empty plot of land. There’s so much buyer demand that in some situations it’s more opportune for landlords to sell rather than follow through on plans for redevelopment or filling buildings with new tenants. A record $29.4 billion of Manhattan property deals were completed in the first half of 2015, according to brokerage Jones Lang LaSalle Inc., part of a five-year real estate rally that’s pushed prices to new highs in big U.S. cities. Read the court decision
    Read the full story...
    Reprinted courtesy of Sarah Mulholland, Bloomberg

    IRMI Expert Commentary: Managing Insurance Coverage from Multiple Insurers

    May 11, 2020 —
    What do you do when less is more? In many loss scenarios, triggering coverage under multiple policies can be a critical and effective strategy. However, doing so has the potential to complicate the insurance recovery proceedings immensely, and possibly even undermine those overall goals. The relation of "other insurance" clauses, allocation schemes, and the practical impacts of interacting with multiple insurers can all leave the insured with some difficult questions. We present here several scenarios that illustrate how these concerns can arise and how they should be addressed to avoid running into what The Notorious B.I.G.—had he been a coverage lawyer—would have called "The More Coverage We Come Across, the More Problems We See." The "Other Insurance" Issue This first scenario is where a single-year loss implicates multiple lines of coverage. Consider the following: a general contractor (GC) faces a property damage liability claim from an owner. As a prudent insured, the GC notifies its customary first line of defense, its commercial general liability (CGL) insurer, to provide a defense. As knowledge of the claim evolves, it appears an element of pollution may be involved. The GC also places its pollution insurer on notice. Later, it's determined that the GC may have a professional liability exposure, so it tenders a claim to its professional liability insurer. Now assume that each insurer accepts coverage. Reprinted courtesy of Saxe Doernberger & Vita attorneys Gregory D. Podolak, Philip B. Wilusz and Ashley McWilliams Mr. Podolak may be contacted at gdp@sdvlaw.com Mr. Wilusz may be contacted at pbw@sdvlaw.com Ms. McWilliams may be contacted at amw@sdvlaw.com Read the court decision
    Read the full story...
    Reprinted courtesy of

    Rulemaking to Modernize, Expand DOI’s “Type A” Natural Resource Damage Assessment Rules Expected Fall 2023

    December 23, 2023 —
    The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) anticipates proposing a new rule that would revise its “Type A” Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) regulations under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) in Fall 2023. The proposed rule would modernize DOI’s rarely used simplified Type A procedures for assessing damages for natural resource injuries tailored at sites involving minor releases of hazardous substances, with a smaller scale and scope of natural resource injury occurring in either coastal and marine areas or Great Lakes environments (the “Type A Rule”). (See 88 Fed. Reg. 3373; see 43 C.F.R. Pt. 11 Subpt. D.) The Type A Rule was last updated in 1997. DOI previewed the proposal in January 2023 in its Office of Restoration and Damage Assessment’s (ORDA) Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR). In the ANPR, the ORDA surmised that the Type A Rule was rarely used in part because of its restricted scope, but also because “the model equation for each Type A environment is the functional part of the rule itself—with no provisions to reflect evolving toxicology, ecology, technology, or other scientific understanding without a formal amendment to the Type A Rule each time a parameter is modified.” Calling the existing rule “inefficient and inflexible,” the ORDA stated that its proposal to reformulate the rule “as a procedural structure” would “modernize the Type A process and develop a more flexible and enduring rule than what is provided by the two existing static models” (88 Fed. Reg. 3373). Reprinted courtesy of Amanda G. Halter, Pillsbury, Jillian Marullo, Pillsbury and Ashleigh Myers, Pillsbury Ms. Halter may be contacted at amanda.halter@pillsburylaw.com Ms. Marullo may be contacted at jillian.marullo@pillsburylaw.com Ms. Myers may be contacted at ashleigh.myers@pillsburylaw.com Read the court decision
    Read the full story...
    Reprinted courtesy of