Seattle Washington Building Expert Directory

Consult with Counsel when Preparing Construction Liens

April 13, 2017 — David Adelstein – Florida Construction Legal Updates
All too often entities prepare their own construction liens. Sure, it is an effective way to save a few bucks. No doubt about it. But, by doing so, you are (i) not relying on advice of counsel that is important when it comes to lien preparation and (ii) not relying on strategy that goes along with the preparation of a lien. When you are liening, the reason you are doing so is because you have not been paid. You therefore want to collateralize your nonpayment against the real property—the leverage of a construction lien. This is a very beneficial statutory tool if implemented correctly, so it only makes sense to do it “strategically” right. A construction lien is a statutory form. So, how hard can it be? Filling out the “form” is not hard, however, there is legal significance to the information and amounts included in a lien. For instance:

There is significance to the amount you are liening. Are you liening for disputed change order work? Are you liening for amounts unrelated to base contract work?
There is significance to the final furnishing date. Are you liening within 90 days of performing base contract work unrelated to punchlist or warranty work?
There is significance to date the Notice to Owner was served (if you are not in privity with the owner). Was the Notice to Owner served within 45 days of initial furnishing?
There is significance to the legal description identified in the lien. Are you liening the right property based on the type of project you are working on?
There can even be significance to the initial furnishing date. Assuming you are the general contractor, what was your initial furnishing date in comparison with when the Notice of Commencement was recorded? If you are not a general contractor, when was the initial furnishing date in comparison with when you served the Notice to Owner?

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Reprinted courtesy of David Adelstein, Florida Construction Legal Updates
Mr. Adelstein may be contacted at dadelstein@gmail.com

Recovering Attorney’s Fees and Treble Damages in Washington DC Condominium Construction Defect Cases

April 03, 2023 — Nicholas D. Cowie - Cowie Law Group
DC Condominium Association’s Can Recover Attorney’s Fees, Litigation Costs and Treble Damages in Construction Defect Cases Involving Misrepresentation The District of Columbia Consumer Protection Procedures Act (“CPPA”) § 28-3905(k)(1)(A) creates a private legal claim (a/k/a “cause of action”) which can be asserted by a condominium unit owners association (“condominium association”) on behalf of two or more of its unit owner members who are misled by a condominium developer regarding the condition or quality of a newly constructed or newly converted condominium. Under the DC CPPA, a successful claimant is entitled to recover “treble damages” (i.e., three times the amount of damages it proves), plus recovery of “reasonable attorney’s fees” incurred in prosecuting the construction defect claim and “[a]ny other relief the court determines proper,” including non-attorney fee litigation expenses. DC CPPA § 28-3905(k)(2)(A), (B) and (F). The CPPA Creates the Legal Claim that Allows a Condominium Associations to Recover Attorney’s Fees, Litigation Costs and Treble Damages The DC CPPA is a consumer-oriented statute designed to protect Washington DC consumers misled in connection with the purchase of consumer “real estate,” including transactions involving the purchase of a condominium unit and interest in the condominium common elements. Typically, these cases involve the sale of a newly constructed or newly converted condominium, which, contrary to developer representations, contains latent construction defects. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Nicholas D. Cowie, Cowie Law Group
Mr. Cowie may be contacted at ndc@cowielawgroup.com

Washington Court Denies Subcontractor’s Claim Based on Contractual Change and Notice Provisions

January 29, 2024 — Wendy Rosenstein - Ahlers Cressman & Sleight PLLC
The recent unpublished case, Cascade Civil Construction, LLC v. Jackson Dean Construction, Inc., et al.,[1] provides a legal justification for contractors to require a directive or change order in advance of performing changed work—thereby preventing the party who requested the changed work from later arguing that notice provisions were not complied with. In the case, Jackson Dean, the prime contractor, hired Cascade to perform excavation work on a project to build a new Costco Corporate headquarters. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and other issues, Jackson Dean directed resequencing, which required Cascade to perform excavation concurrent to dewatering. Jackson Dean also required deeper-than-planned excavation under one of the buildings. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Wendy Rosenstein, Ahlers Cressman & Sleight PLLC
Ms. Rosenstein may be contacted at wendy.rosenstein@acslawyers.com

The Future of Pandemic Coverage for Real Estate Owners and Developers

November 09, 2020 — Ashley McWilliams - Saxe Doernberger & Vita
Shutdowns resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic have prompted an unprecedented number of business income and business interruption insurance claims. Many claims have resulted in litigation and require judicial intervention to determine whether private insurance carriers owe policyholders indemnification for pandemic related losses. Private insurance carriers that have denied the claims, in large part, argue that they did not underwrite coverage for the pandemic and assert that pandemic coverage is much too unpredictable to underwrite. Private carriers contend that a government-backed insurance program is necessary to mitigate the economic impact resulting from pandemic claims. The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted real estate owners and developers. Real estate owners and developers have sustained business income losses in the form of lost rents at commercial properties, service disruption, labor and/ or material shortages, to name a few. Questions about whether the virus caused “direct physical damage,” as well as whether specific “virus exclusions” on policies, have provided hurdles to coverage under existing schemes, click here.Those that have filed lawsuits against their insurers seeking coverage under current policy terms are having mixed results, at best. Click here to view SDV’s Litigation Tracker. A predictable source of indemnification for future pandemic-related losses would greatly relieve business disruption and, ultimately, the impact on the economy. However, the question remains, who will pay for such massive losses? Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Ashley McWilliams, Saxe Doernberger & Vita
Ms. McWilliams may be contacted at AMcWilliams@sdvlaw.com

What You Need to Know About Additional Insured Endorsements

August 30, 2017 — Gary Barrera - California Construction Law Blog
A well-drafted insurance clause is an integral part of a construction contract because it sets forth a subcontractor’s obligations to add the general contractor to its policies of insurance as an additional insured and identifies the manner by which the general contractor will qualify as an additional insured. In a typical construction contract, the general contractor will be an additional insured via a scheduled endorsement or a blanket endorsement. Scheduled Endorsements A scheduled endorsement contains a “schedule” in which the person or organization that is named in the schedule is added to the policy as an additional insured. The following scheduled endorsements are commonly used in construction contracts. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Gary Barrera, Wendel Rosen Black & Dean LLP
Mr. Barrera may be contacted at gbarrera@wendel.com

Recovering Unabsorbed Home Office Overhead Due to Delay

May 30, 2022 — David Adelstein - Florida Construction Legal Updates
In the preceding article, I discussed the use of a retrospective as-built delay analysis in a case before the Civilian Board of Contract Appeals (CBCA). This case also discussed a damages component in certain delay claims known as unabsorbed home office overhead—a challenging damages component to recover because this deals with indirect costs as opposed to direct costs. Unabsorbed home office overhead is a damages component when the contractor is on standby, but this is NOT as easy as just claiming standby thereby you are automatically entitled to unabsorbed home office overhead. There are requirements that MUST be met.

To obtain an equitable adjustment for unabsorbed home office overhead as compensation for being on standby, [the contractor] must initially show “[1] a government-caused delay of uncertain duration,” that “[2] the delay extended the original time for performance” or precluded the contractor from finishing earlier than scheduled, and that “[3] the contractor [was] on standby and unable to take on other work during the delay period. CTA I, LLC v. Department of Veteran Affairs, CBCA 5826, 2022 WL 884710 (CBCA 2022) quoting Nicon, Inc. v. U.S., 331 F.3d 878, 883 (Fed. Cir. 2003).

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Reprinted courtesy of David Adelstein, Kirwin Norris, P.A.
Mr. Adelstein may be contacted at dma@kirwinnorris.com

Contractor Jailed for Home Repair Fraud

November 27, 2013 — CDJ STAFF
An Illinois man has received his third prison sentence for construction fraud, this time for five and a half years. Perry Porter was arrested in October and plead guilty to aggravated home repair fraud. Mr. Porter had charged a homeowner $1,000 per hour for a home repair that should have cost a total of $500. Mr. Porter has also been ordered to pay $6,700 in restitution to the victim. Read the court decision
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Wonder How 2021 May Differ From 2020? Federal Data Privacy May Be Enacted - Be Prepared

February 22, 2021 — Joshua Bevitz - Newmeyer Dillion
State data privacy laws, which are far from uniform, are on the rise. To address that, as well the public’s increasing concern with protecting their private information, it is expected that there will be a serious effort in Congress this year to enact federal data privacy legislation. Here is what you need to know to ensure your business is ready for potential federal regulation. Applicable State Laws As is widely known, some states have recently enacted data privacy legislation to protect consumers. For example, in early 2020, California’s new privacy law, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), took effect, giving consumers more discretion regarding over how companies share and use their personal information. (For years, California already had in place its Database Security Breach Notification Act.) More recently, California enacted the California Privacy Rights and Enforcement Act (CPRA), which amends and strengthens the CCPA. Other states, such as Maine, Nevada, New York, Oregon, and Washington, have enacted their own data privacy legislation. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Joshua Bevitz, Newmeyer Dillion
Mr. Bevitz may be contacted at joshua.bevitz@ndlf.com

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