How To Handle Construction Delays & Changes in Costs In Florida

Join Nick Fernandez from from the Barthet firm in the greater Miami area, and learn how to handle construction delays and changes in costs in Florida

Transcription

Seth Bloom:

Really excited this morning. My name is Seth bloom. I’m the senior director of attorney services at a Levelset. And we put on a lot of these great webinars for all of our users, so they can get information all over the country today. We’re going to be focusing, um, with a Florida lawyer. So we’re really excited about that. We have a lot of Levelset customers and a lot of people that we’d like to help in that whole area. So I will introduce Nick Fernandez and he’s from the Barnett firm and they are in the greater Miami area, but practice all over the state, but primarily, or regionally within South Florida, uh, today’s program is how to handle construction delays and changes in costs in Florida. So Nick, uh, I will turn it over to you right now and we look forward to a great a webinar.

Nick Fernandez:

If anyone has any questions, they can ask them live on here as we’re going and we’ll stop and answer them. And also you can post them, um, and the Levelset, uh, attorney network later on. But we’ll talk about that one. Thanks, Nick. Thank you for the introduction. Um, I worked with Martha from, I’ve been here for approximately three years now of the bar. The bar at that firm is a boutique firms specializing in construction law. Now construction law encompasses everything. You see the bulls defending against construction defect, claims and drafting agreements. With respect to construction law, we were present pretty much anybody involved with construction that goes everywhere from subcontractors and suppliers to prime contractors, owners and condo associations, as well as architects. The purpose of today’s webinar is to primarily focus in a narrow area of construction mom. And that relates to how to handle, um, issues that you may experience on construction projects with tr with relation to changes in time to complete the work changes in the scope that you originally agreed to perform and changes in the contract price.

Nick Fernandez:

So let’s get started one of the first steps in handling and managing the projects that you work on. It begins before the work even commences. And that is at the contract negotiation phase. I cannot emphasize how important the contract negotiations are because it will govern the business relationship you have with the other parties on the project, as well as governance over the work you perform from the beginning of the project, all the way until the end step one is knowing how to effectively negotiate your contracts. Many construction companies have their own attorneys, whether it be a via outsourcing into a firm or hiring an in house counsel, but in any event, whether or not you have an attorney, it’s important that you understand how some of the most contract clauses will affect you with respect to contracts and negotiations. It’s important for you to know that you must never be forced to sign an agreement. If you’re handed a piece of paperwork that you one maybe don’t understand, or two, you understand it, but you don’t agree to those terms. You shouldn’t feel obligated to sign that piece of paper just for the sake of, you know, moving forward with the project. It’s very important that you analyze the terms I’ve been included in each contract and truly determine whether the profit that you’ll, that you’ll get from this project is worth any liability that may be in that contract with respect to liability on your end.

Nick Fernandez:

So one of the first things I tell all my clients to look at in their agreements, other than the legal, you know, boiler plate or non boiler plate language is the scope of work description. This is something that often falls outside of an attorney’s ability to travel, and therefore often goes overlooked. This is something that we as attorneys often rely on contractors to present. Remember, you are the smartest person in the room when it comes to understanding the scope of work that you will be performing, being the smartest person in the room. It is important that all of your contracts include a very detailed scope of work description, so that all parties meaning if it’s the GC that hire you, or if it’s the owner that hired you so that you end them or on the same page with what you will and will not be performing as well as with respect to how you will be paid for that work.

Nick Fernandez:

There’s many different forms of contracts in the construction world. There’s AIA agreements. There’s, you know, sometimes simple estimates that are one page long, and sometimes there’s privately written lengthy agreements, regardless of the type of agreement you’re using. It’s important that you understand how that agreement works for you and the calculated cost you’re taking when entering and signing an agreement with respect to cost plus contracts. Those that do not do not have a guaranteed maximum price. You’re less concerned about the scope of work description, because so long as you’re performing the scope of work described in the contract, you’re allowed to bill your costs. Exactly. Plus you sort on agreeing to percentage for overhead and profit. So what I’m telling you to truly look at your scope of work description, I’m less concerned with cost plus contracts and more concerned about contracts that have a guaranteed maximum price or those that are for a flat lump sum, with respect to lump sum contracts and guaranteed maximum prices.

Nick Fernandez:

The scope of work description is key in sure. You’re adequately compensated for the work you do on a project. The reason I say that is because if you are, if you are drafting an agreement that includes a scope of work description that is overly broad and cost a larger umbrella than you anticipated to cast over the work that you perform, you have to understand that the lump-sum price or the guaranteed maximum price is what you will be paid to perform that work. If you forgot to include something in that price, meaning you leader tell the owner or the GC. No. When, when I was calculating this price, I didn’t include the cost of, of permits or I didn’t include the cost of you name it. That will be a cost that now you have to eat because when you go back and look at the contract documents, the contract documents says the work that you prefer, poor perform. And as long as the task that you’re performing falls under that scope of work description, then you will be on the hook for performing that work at the agreed to price and will not be entitled to a change order or two additional compensation, barring a few exceptions, which we’ll talk about later in today’s webinar. So it is very important that you do keep that in mind and be as detailed as possible when drafting your scope of work descriptions.

Nick Fernandez:

With respect to what I said earlier is that you don’t want to accidentally cast too wide a net. So this slide here, which will later be presented to you at the end of the, um, at the end of the webinar, when you get a link to the presentation that occurred today, you’ll see that these are some of the important things to keep in mind being familiar with. The contract terms is key. We see many instances where owners and prime contractors refuse to sub to compensate whether it be a subcontractor or whether an owner fails to compensate a prime contractor. Despite that, that party being over budget on a project, we have clients call us and say, I’m over budget on the project. I need more money. The owner or the GC is not agreeing to pay me more. Obviously your clients always think they’re entitled to additional compensation, but it’s important to evaluate whether you truly are.

Nick Fernandez:

You should be familiar with the terms in this, in that are included in your contract for the purpose of understanding when you will. And when you will not be entitled to additional compensation, there are certain circumstances where even if you are over budget, you may not be entitled to additional compensation based on the, on the terms included in the contract you signed. That is the reason behind being as, as understanding and as complete as possible when evaluating your contract terms and spending a little bit of additional time doing that work at the beginning of a project, we’ll, you know, we’ll pay out threefold when you’re actually doing the work. Seth, do you have a question?

Nick Fernandez:

No. I just wanted to kind of touch base with everyone that all of our participants and tell them to, you know, it’s not often you get to speak with a fancy Miami lawyer like this, the charge charges, hundreds of dollars an hour. So please post these questions and let and give Nick some work to answer them, uh, today. So, uh, but great job so far, Nick, we’ll just, I’ll let you know, as soon as we have any questions. Sounds good.

Nick Fernandez:

So here are some different examples we can run through as to when you may or may not be entitled to additional compensation. Remember logic would tell you that if a project is delayed through no fault of your own, or if costs change through something that is out of your control, that you would be entitled to additional compensation, but that’s not always true because your contract may include certain waivers. So here are a few examples to run through one. Does your contract include a no damages for delay provision? That is a huge red flag. If it does, if a project is delayed, you want to be entitled for additional compensation because surely there will be additional actual costs with having to spend more time on the project than you originally anticipated. There’ll be overhead for that. And of course, you will want to charge a certain percentage and markup for profit.

Nick Fernandez:

Having a no damages for delay provision in your contract means that regardless of who caused the delay, even if it was through no fault of your own, you won’t be entitled to additional sums of money for the project taking one year, two years longer than you expected. Usually these no damages for delay provision only permit you additional time to complete your work. In other words, if you had a substantial completion date in your contract that substantial completion day will likely be extended due to the delays on the project. But the only extension to your contract that you will receive is an extension of time so that you won’t be a material breach of the agreement rather than seeking additional compensation for the time you spent. So keep that in mind, if you’re working with a no damages for delay provision, and it’s already too late, you know, you, you, you learn from your mistakes, you know how to do it on the next project, but you’re currently stuck in this situation.

Nick Fernandez:

The best thing to do at that point in time is to accelerate your work and accelerate to the extent needed to complete the project within the time that you originally, um, were, were authorized to perform it. And I’m sorry, let me be a little bit more detailed. This acceleration, uh, recommendation I’m giving relates to what a no damn, just for delay, it goes a little bit further than simply non tying you to damages for compensation, but actually does not allow you additional time to complete a project. Meaning whether it be through your own fault or not. Your contract has some sort of term that says, regardless of the reasoning for a delay on a project, you must complete the project by such a date. The only way to avoid defaulting on your agreement at such instance is by accelerating your work. So you want to make sure that your contract is clear in stating that you will be additional, that you will be entitled to additional time and cost associated with delays by others. It would be unreasonable to ask for your contract included with S the same terminology, with respect to a delay that you may have caused. But the one most important thing to take away from this is that under any circumstance, if there’s a delay caused by a third party, you should be entitled to both additional time and money. For me.

Nick Fernandez:

Another contract term that we often see included is time is of the essence clauses time is of the essence is very strict language that must be complied with. And it means exactly that time is of the essence. And therefore, any failure to comply with the time requirements in your contract would be a material breach. There are times when these clauses are beneficial to you. And other times when it might hurt you, time is of the essence is important to have in a contract. If you’re an owner entering into a contract with the GC, and you want to assure that the GC timely performs a project or else that it would be a material breach of the agreement. Likewise, if you’re a general contractor entering to a subcontract with some contractor that you’ve hired, you want to make sure that contract has a time is of the essence clause to assure timely performance of that subcontractor.

Nick Fernandez:

The Congress is true. Meaning if the contract you’re entering into governance, the scope of work that you will be performing, then you do not want a time is of the essence clause to be in there because in the event that the project is delayed for any reason, whether it be through a change in scope or a chain or, or a delay, you want the contract time to change accordingly. And because of that, and you do not want, as you do not want a time is of the essence clause. Instead, you would propose contract Lang language that says all schedules and completion dates are an estimate. Only one important rule of thumb is that if your contract States at all completion, dates and schedules are an estimate only that does not give you the opportunity to take advantage of the opposing party and drag out the project.

Nick Fernandez:

As long as it is convenient for you. There’s still a general rule of thumb that a party must complete a contract within a reasonable time. If you, if you have good reasons for the project taking longer, being to be sure, to always document those reasons in writing and to notify the opposing parties in writing. If you don’t have a reason for the project to be delayed and the mere cause for delays, maybe you’re tied up with other work or you have personal matters going on. Then you have to realize that it is still your responsibility to maintain that schedule as strictly as possible. So do not think that because there’s not a time as a vs as closing your contract, that you are now at Liberty to take, as long as you want to complete.

Nick Fernandez:

Now, let’s step away from written contracts and talk a little bit about handshake deals. We know how the construction industry is and what it was based on, where did, where it’s out today is very different than where it was at 30 years ago. As time goes on, we see companies becoming more and more professional in their dealings. And, you know, through the consultation of attorneys, which obviously just something is something that occurs through the passage of time. Meaning the more time that passes on, the more likely you are to have finally drafted a very good contract or a very good change order, or, or have really put systems into place that worked for you. But even today, there are still people in the construction industry, working on handshake deals while we do not encourage handshake deals. One thing we do encourage is that if you have a handshake deal, don’t all of a sudden disrupt that deal because the opposing party’s asking you to sign a contract.

Nick Fernandez:

Very often, we have clients come to us saying I’ve been working on this project for one, maybe two months, I’ve done good work. I know the opposing parties pleased with my work. However, now they’re holding up my payment. I haven’t been paid a dime and they’re telling me that if I don’t sign this 20 page contract that they gave me and they’re not going to pay me, should I sign it? Well, the question is first read it. Did you read the contract? Are you okay with the terms they’re in? Because if you’re okay with the terms and obviously sign it, assuming that the contract that they presented to you is something that is one sided. Then you want to be sure to pause and see how you’re going to handle that. Does that visitor question? Yeah. Let me ask you questions. Um, and this is for me, um, I mean, does this fall under like handshake, a handshake deals?

Nick Fernandez:

Does that fall under more of a Florida contract law? Um, you know, and what is kind of the statutory parameters around that? I know in Louisiana, for instance, it’s a little, you know, we do have those aren’t good contracts. Uh, I know they’re never recommended, but what is, what’s kind of the bigger picture of it in Florida? So that’s a great question. Verbal agreements are still agreements. There are some statutes governing verbal and it, it really depends on, uh, on those tax scenario basis piece. It depends who you enter into a contract in to, in some instances there’s even Florida prompt, payment acts, which would require a party to pay you within 30 days of you invoicing for the work you did on a project, or be subject to interest on past due amounts. Meaning even though you didn’t have a written contract, you would be entitled to interest for late payments.

Nick Fernandez:

Likewise, there’s a statute of limitations for enforcing Rudin agreements that is different from those that are non-random agreements, meaning verbal, therefore, yes, there are many statutory parameters governing verbal contracts, which certifies that they are in fact contracts. However, those fancy terms that you’ll wish you had in an agreement with respect to many things that may arise on a construction project will not be in that agreement. And there are not stock. There are not many statutes to protect you with respect to those terms. So with respect to the verbal agreements, assuming that you do have one, and assuming you’ve been already working on a project and you have not been paid, and you, you arrive at a crossroads. Do I sign an agreement that’s been presented by the owner of GC, or do I cut my losses and walk away from the project knowing they haven’t paid me?

Nick Fernandez:

Well, the first thing to do is really push forward by attempting to negotiate a fair agreement. If you don’t agree with the terms included in the contract, that’s been presented to you, then be sure to either consult with an attorney or those trusted advisors, you have to negotiate a fair deal and have a fair deal. Can’t be negotiated with the GC or owner who is pushing you to sign this agreement in exchange for payment. Then it may be best to walk away from a project and either lean or make a bond claim. Assuming you’ve properly noticed the project.

Nick Fernandez:

We do have a new question from Sonia and it’s a real practical one. Uh, when we get a letter of intent, we usually start work before the formal contract comes. Is that wise, or should we write that we can amend any written agreement that comes to us

Nick Fernandez:

Subsequently? That’s a great question. And often often happens. The best thing to do is before you’ve started work to have the agreement in place that will govern your relationship. The idea that a contract is signed after you’ve started work is not in and of itself a concern. The true concern comes with you already being invested in a project, and now feeling, feeling pressured to sign an agreement that you otherwise would not have signed if you were not already invested in that project, that is the simplest way of answering that question.

Nick Fernandez:

Great. And we have another one they’re starting to flow here. We’re picking up some, some inertia, um,

Nick Fernandez:

Masi asks can emails constitute a legally binding agreement. For example, I signed an agreement with a 30 day payment term that because unexpected causes like COVID, I’ve told them by the client app, the contract is negotiated and sign. The new terms of payment is 90 days is that, is this legally fair? It can be legally fair in certain circumstances. So one in all circumstances, there must be an acceptance. So a simple notice to the opposing party, isn’t sufficient to bind them to those terms. They must respond and state that they agree to those terms. However, even that in itself may not always be sufficient because your contract may state a specific if assuming you do have a written agreement for the project, may state a specific way that you amend the agreement and that if it’s not amended in that way, then any modifications will not be binding. So being familiar with those terms will be important in determining whether an email will be sufficient, an email and an agreement response will be sufficient or not.

Nick Fernandez:

So it’s just, we discussed sometimes it’s better having no contract than a bad one. So truly determine whether you are comfortable with signing something that you’re unfamiliar with or uncomfortable with, or whether it’s best to cut your losses. The best way to make this determination is to weigh two things. One, see the exposure that this contract gives you by exposure. I mean, if the project were to go wrong in any of a number of ways, what would be the extent of your liability is that liability greater than the profit that you are receiving from this project, or even the same, if it’s the same or greater. And it might be recommended that you walk away from the project. However, taking calculated risk is part of every business, meaning you will never have a contract. That’s perfectly one sided to yourself. Likewise, you should never sign a contract. That’s one side into somebody else. So for that reason with every contract comes some risks. You just, it’s important that you understand the calculated risk that you’re taking and way that to the benefits you’re receiving from a project.

Nick Fernandez:

Now we’re stepping back into the world of assuming you have a signed contract for an agreement. I mean, for a project, whether it be a guaranteed maximum price contract, a lump sum contract, or a cost plus with respect to change orders, it’s very important that you understand how change orders work in into your contract and whether your contract already has any predetermined obligations with respect to change, order work. Some contractors, some contracts are pretty loose. You may have, you may say and allow you to change the contract as needed, whether it be via email or via text, some contracts, state that only a signed change order already providing you an exhibit change order form must be used. And if that is not used, then a change order, won’t occur. Make sure that you understand how your contract refers to these terms. And if you don’t understand, make sure to consult with somebody who does. I understand that getting change orders often interrupts the flow of projects. And for that reason parties, don’t always like to get change orders because it’s easier to just proceed with the work.

Nick Fernandez:

If you’re doing this, if you’re somebody who’s a risk taker, and you understand that it’s necessary to obtain, to obtain a change order, but you just know that you are not in the habit of doing so. There’s one minimum step I ask that you take in order to protect yourself. And that is before you commence any change order work, send me a written notification to the opposing party, describing the change work that you will perform the price for that work and the amount of time that it will take you to perform that change order work and that, unless they, unless you receive an objection within a certain number of days telling you to stop commencement of that work, then you will proceed. If you do this before commencing any change work, while it may not be as Bulletproof as doing exactly what your contract said, you had minimum gives you a substantially colorable argument that you were entitled to additional time, money, and performance of that work.

Nick Fernandez:

Granted that you granted that you are somebody who is a rule fall over and tends to do exactly what your contract says, that make sure you have a signed change order as needed prior to commencing change order work. If you’re verbally told to proceed with a directive that you know is something that falls outside of your contract, it’s important that you say, I’m glad that you’re giving me this additional work, but you know, let’s, let’s take a moment to formalize this and have our paperwork clean it’ll benefit. The both of us, the opposing party should not give you pushback on that. If they do, then that is a red flag. Meaning if you’re told yes, yes. Meaning verbally on the phone. Yes. Proceed with the work. Don’t worry about it. Let’s do it. Let’s get it done. We just want to keep moving. But that party is unwilling to put pen to paper and sign a change order as a huge cause for concern, because he’d be performed work that was outside of your contract scope, and there’s no specific agreement as to how your contract will be modified.

Nick Fernandez:

Then it is possible that if you are now delayed you yourself, by having performed work, that you weren’t anticipating are performing, you can still be bound by the original completion date in your contract. And the excuse that you’ve performed other work for the project will not be an excuse to having failed, to perform the work stated in your contract within the time state in your contracts. A second issue is with respect to payment. If you proceed with change order work and you complete it. And that is when you first discussing when you first began discussing payments with the owner or the GC with respect to that work, then that owner GC is permitted to object to the amount you are charging to the work so long as their objections are reasonable. Meaning if you proceed with change, where to work and completed, and you did not have a formalized change order that does not mean that you’re allowed to charge what you please for that work instead, the owner or GC is still able to contradict the price that you’re presenting to them by stating, look, I’ve obtained these other proposals for the same work.

Nick Fernandez:

I understand that you’ve already completed it, but these other companies would have been willing to charge me way less. I’m willing to charge you X dollars. I’m willing to pay you X dollars for the work. And now, you know, legal dispute where you do not necessarily have the winning argument with respect to how much you’re entitled to collect for that work. So for that reason, if a GC or an owner is objecting to signing a change order, know that you have the right to say, okay, then I will not be performing that work until you’re willing to put pen to paper.

Nick Fernandez:

So let’s talk a little bit more about changes in the scope as we just discussed are not required to perform work. That is not explicitly stated in your contract when performing changed work, you want to always account for two things. One how the project time will be affected and how, and to how your costing the project will be affected. We generally see the client’s focus on the cost aspect and often forget to include a time component in their change order forms. Time, time, uh, changes in a project are very critical because if you are bound by certain schedule or completion date, you want to be abundantly clear that that schedule or completion date will be changed as a result of the additional work that you are performing separately. Aside from those two things. And with respect to obtaining a change order. One reason why following your contract with respect to change orders is because you’ve worked very hard to negotiate an agreement in writing that governs the terms of the work that you will be performing on a project, meaning I’m sure there is many terms in there, which you’ve included to protect you such as a dispute resolution provision, a limitation of liability, a waiver of certain obligations, and you know, certain additional terms that, that govern the work you perform.

Nick Fernandez:

If you fail to properly execute a change order, as stated in your contract, then the contractual terms, the terms and conditions, including the not agreement will not govern over the change order work. Instead, it’ll only govern over the work that was described in your agreement. So now, if a dispute arises towards the end of the project, you’re going to be left with, you know, two different ways of hand of, of the project being addressed. Meaning your lawyer will likely tell you yes, certain work is protected by these terms and conditions, but the change work, which was not specifically agreed to in writing will not be protected by those terms and conditions.

Seth Bloom:

Nick, it looks like Massey has a followup question here. What if the client rejects the change order? Not because it’s not because it’s not argument argued at enough,

Seth Bloom:

But just because the red flag has been raised too late, either because the project is too close and the problem was solved a long time ago. And the CEO is presented out of time because the late warning, uh, with the change order could have been avoided.

Nick Fernandez:

And that’s a fair argument by the owner. There there’s very little to do there on the side of the party, performing the work. That’s why it’s very important that any changes in the project be addressed as they happen on the moment. And before you proceed further with working on something, that may be a change once you’re at the end of a project that is not the time to first raise issues with changes in time or work or money. So let’s discuss it. The project gets delayed for reasons that are outside of your control, assuming that you have a contract that just not put these risks on you, then you want to be sure that if there’s a delay on a project caused by any party outside of your control, then you should calculate immediately. The additional costs you may incur stemming from the delay. It’s important that irrespective of changes on a, on a project or delays on a project that on an ongoing basis, you continue estimating the amount of time it will take to complete a project, but in any event it’s most important to do it when there is a delay or a change in work, you want to be sure that you’re still on the same page with the owner or with the GC, with respect to how the completion date will be affected.

Nick Fernandez:

Now there’s a few things that we discussed earlier, but we should definitely touch upon again. And the question is, what do you do if a completion date becomes unrealistic based on either a delay based on your own performance or based on the project having become bigger than was originally anticipated and bigger. I mean, because they changed the scope, the pool was made larger, the buildings had new finishes, you name it. So one, if these changes are something that if, if the liability falls on you is the best way to say it because that is the broadest term possible. Then the best you can do to get back on track is accelerate your work or weekends work nights. Yes, these may be caused that you incur that you did not anticipate on incurring, but if the liability falls on you, if the project is not completed in time, it is likely that the liability arising from the project ending late will be greater. Meaning what the costs that you own will be much larger and monies that you have to pay to opposing party in the form of liquidated damages or consequential damages. Those costs will be greater to you by finishing lead rather than the cost that you will incur by paying your workers to work overtime and we can shift.

Nick Fernandez:

So let’s talk a little bit more about these changes in projects based on either delays or, or changes of work changes in scope of work. And here at presents, you three examples. We start with the first, which is actions by other parties in the project causing you to incur additional costs. It’s important that you evaluate your contract to determine how you will be entitled to seek additional compensation and time for these actions of others. It’s important that you understand how your contract States that because yes, your contract may give you the ability to claim additional time and money, but it may limit the amount of time you have to make that claim such as the question that was presented earlier, if you make the claim at the end of the project, it may be that your, that your contract States that you waived those claims if not made within 30 days of the, of the situation arising.

Nick Fernandez:

So be sure you’re aware of how to maneuver through that. Number two, let’s say that there is an increase in costs caused by you and not necessarily you, but somebody that falls under you. So in the eyes of the GC and the owner, this is additional costs that, that you’re causing on the project. There are certain circumstances where you may be additional to, you may be entitled to additional such as if there’s an, an across the board increase in labor or materials, meaning the metal, the concrete, the whatever materials you need to use on a project across the board throughout the United States have increased in price, or the labor rate has increased. These are examples of, of, of changes, which you may be entitled to additional compensation form. One example that we often see presented to us. And we unfortunately have to target clients that they’re not likely entitled to additional compensation for.

Nick Fernandez:

This is when you, you prepared an estimate or proposal or a lump sum agreement, or a guaranteed maximum price, presuming that you would be working with certain subcontractors and suppliers and those subcontractors and suppliers provided you with their own proposals and estimates, which you relied on. But that later that’s a contractor supply. You supplier wants to charge you more. That is not the time for you to go and pass on those costs to the GC and the owner. If you’re working under the contract contract forms, we just described, which have a set maximum price. Instead, that’s a circumstance we pushed back on your subcontractor supplier saying, we relied on this proposal. This is the price you agreed to provide us the service for. And that is the most. We will pay understanding that if you were that if you paid your subcontractor supplier more for it, it is likely that you will end up eating those costs and that they will not be passed on to the owner or prime contractor.

Nick Fernandez:

So clean paperwork is key. I understand that it’s a lot of work. And now what I’ve may have stated today may be a lot to take in, but it’s important that you are always seeing how you can benefit from a little bit additional work, additional work, and understanding how your contract works, how it changes, work, how delays work, and how new work, you know, may affect you is very important and key in maximizing the profitability profitability of your company. So it’s always important to act within your contract terms and note that if you’re not somebody who enjoys working with contracts that know that you’re in the verbal agreement slash handshake deal market, and that is how you should perform work. Don’t think that’s by signing agreement, without reading the terms included there in that the contract doesn’t matter. I understand that on the field you’re often told, Oh, just sign this. You know, the president of the company requires it, or, you know, our attorneys required, but we really don’t care. Don’t be one of those who’s duped into signing something thinking it won’t matter because believe you that if something were to go wrong in that project, that party who encouraged you to sign that agreement quickly turn around on you and use that agreement

Seth Bloom:

In their favor. So with that arrive at the conclusion of today’s presentation, you know, do keep in mind what we’ve presented today, and always reach out to an attorney for additional information. If you’re unfamiliar with the agreement, you may have entered into 40 projects with that. I welcome any additional questions you may have, but we do have a few more questions. Um, so now anyone that has any additional questions I was gonna say, cause they’re coming in, I go ahead and post them. Or if you need any clarification from Nick, that’d be great. Uh, Sonia asks, how do we contend with verbiage that says that we must share with the delay rates of the prime, even if the delay is not caused by your company. That’s a huge concern. That to me, is an unfair contract clause. And when you are in the negotiation phase of a contract that would be taken out a party should only be taking responsibility for delays caused by themselves. You are not tied to the prime contractor. You are separate entities and, you know, you have different profitability margins and different involvements in the project. It would be extremely unfair for you to take on and share the risk that a prime contractor is taking on a project.

Seth Bloom:

Okay. And Massey asks another one, can a ride or be in conflict with the AIA contract. That’s a very broad question. And it really depends, uh, how that AIA contract was modified and, you know, the type of AIA form that you use because there are several. So that is something that would have to be answered on a case by case basis. Okay. Um, we’re a little bit over, but if there’s any last minute questions, we’ll get to them now, um, just wanted to take the time right now to really thank Nick for taking time out of his day to do this. I hope all of our participants learned a lot. I certainly did. And got a lot of good information. Um, again, my name is Seth bloom. I’m the, uh, senior director of attorney services at Levelset. Uh, we’re a network of construction lawyers, uh, within the attorney network and our expert center.

Seth Bloom:

Uh, go ahead. And, uh, if you have any questions about legal concerns and in regards to getting paid or construction, host them, um, uh, right at Levelset within the attorney network, uh, you get a bunch of attorneys answering those questions for free. If you have specific questions or if you’ve been impressed with Nick today, and they’re in the Florida area, go ahead and call Nick directly and email him. Uh, he’s more than happy to take on new clients. And we’d also love to have you post them on our website as well. So we can get a, so you get a different perspective of answers. Um, these slides will be made available and this presentation will be on our website. Cause I know we get that question a lot. So, uh, thanks again, Nick, if you have any, um, final statements, uh, go ahead now. Just thank you very much and thanks for having me. And if you do post questions on the, uh, Levelset website, I may be one of the attorneys responding to them. Exactly. We really appreciate all your help and participation. And thanks everyone for joining us today this morning. I have a good one. Thank you.