HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - January 8, 2021
Published: Fri, 01/08/21
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7 Provisions You Shouldn't Leave Out of Condo/HOA Construction Contracts
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In week's tip, we get you started on how to avoid getting your condo/HOA in trouble by signing on one-sided construction contract.
To a person, our experts are on the same page. Construction contracts are big, huge, gaping potholes too many associations fall into unwittingly.
“They're absolutely too skewed to the contractor,” insists Alessandra Stivelman, who is board-certified in condo and planned development law and a partner at Eisinger Law in Hollywood, Fla. “The problem is that they tend to be more complicated than the board can understand. A contractor will use an American Institute of Architects form or some other form their attorney has drafted, and those are one-sided. They're so pro-contractor and against the client.”
And there's a common bidding practice that gets associations in trouble. “Usually what I see is that the contractor will hand the association what's deemed to be a proposal,” says David Firmin, managing partner at Altitude Community Law PC in Lakewood, Colo., with satellite offices in Loveland, Colorado Springs, Durango, and Frisco. “Then the association signs it, even though it says it's subject to ‘all of our additional terms and conditions.'
“Often, what's notably missing is any way the contractor can default,” he says. “There's no time frame to perform the services, and there are no standards for completing the work. If nothing else, put the darn proposal onto a contract that has a provision saying, ‘This is how you breach and how you cure it if you've breached.'”
Barbara Holland, CPM, regional director for FirstService Residential in Las Vegas, has seen how one-sided contracts have truly harmed her clients. “I really feel that associations hurt themselves by not having an attorney look at construction contracts, but also contracts in general,” she says. “One of my associations was involved in a lawsuit for five years because they didn't spell out some things in a construction contract and became responsible for the legal fees to defend the contractors.”
What? The association had to pay to fund the contractor's defense in a dispute over association work the contractor performed? How could that happen?
Find out, plus get the seven things you absolutely should include in your contracts, in our new article:
https://www.hoaleader.com/members/4258.cfm
Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President
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Recent articles posted at HOAleader.com:
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Construction Contracts: Protect Your Condo/HOA from These One-Sided Traps
In a December HOAleader.com article, one of our experts lamented
construction contracts: "I tell every single client: I'm not trying to drum
up business. Please send construction contracts to us," requested
Jennifer Horan, a shareholder in the Naples, Fla., office of Becker &
Poliakoff, who has represented condos and HOAs for more than 15 years.
"Those are even more terrible than management contracts," she said at the
time. What's so bad about them? Here are our experts' tips on strengthening
your association's position in a construction contract.
Click here to read full article:
https://www.hoaleader.com/members/Construction-Contracts-Protect-Your-Condo-HOA-from-These-One-Sided-Traps.cfm
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How Not to Dismiss Your Condo/HOA Owners' Concerns
In this week's tip, we raise a warning about dismissing owners' concerns
because you've heard them all before. We recently got a letter with an
interesting twist on our usual approach. A reader wrote, "Any help for those
of us homeowners who have issues with the indiscretions of that governing
body... such as not following the existing rules?"
Click here to read full article:
https://www.hoaleader.com/public/How-Not-Dismiss-Your-Condo-HOA-Owners-Concerns.cfm
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Should Your Condo/HOA Agree to Let Your Manager Off the Hook?
An HOAleader.com reader asks: "To what extent can/should a management
company be indemnified? A proposed management company wants the HOA to
revise the CC&Rs to indemnify the company for all liability except breach of
contract, willful misconduct, and criminal conduct on the grounds that
such expansive indemnification is an 'industry standard.'"
Click here to read full article:
https://www.hoaleader.com/members/Should-Your-Condo-HOA-Agree-Let-Your-Manager-Off-Hook.cfm
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Reader Disputes Expert Advice: Start with Kindness at Your Condo/HOA
In this week's tip, we respond to a reader who isn't buying our experts' take
on how to handle a dispute. In October, our experts advised a board member not
to step in and have a talk with a bully who was parking in his elderly
neighbor's driveway.
Click here to read full article:
https://www.hoaleader.com/public/Reader-Disputes-Expert-Advice-Start-with-Kindness-at-Your-Condo-HOA.cfm
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