Masonry Magazine August 2001 Page. 38
different punchlists (with the architect holding our money throughout) until finally it reached the point where I had to announce to the owner and architect that "WE ARE DONE", pull my men, and demand my money. In short, there should be one punchlist - period.
9) We fail to defend ourselves from (growingly) partisan contracts and documents.
Let me take this moment to point out something that you probably already know: we contractors rarely read the specification manuals cover to cover. Surprised? I didn't think so. There simply isn't time and the manuals have simply grown too large and complex. Personally, I'd be more concerned about a contractor who did have time to read the manual completely! But, this does leave us with a glaring concern: with the exception of a handful of obsessive-compulsive construction contract enthusiasts, only a measured percentage of the boundless and extraneous legal jargon, indemnifications, and "whereas the
party of the first part..." clauses ever really get read, comprehended, and (if need be) rebutted.
This being the case, it's been a relatively straight-forward exercise for owners, architects, and engineers to incorporate weighted and bias wording into the specifications; wording that covers and protects their ass(et)s while funneling through to the everyday contractor more and more responsibility and liability. Today, the contractor is left with comparatively few legal rights and leverage ... on the very projects that they're building.
Just take time to read - really read - Division I of many specification manuals and you'll see what I mean. If taken literally, there is virtually nothing of which the owner and architect aren't absolved. Classic clauses go something like this:
"although the designer has made every effort to ascertain that information contained in the working drawings and specifications is correct, it is the sole responsibility of the contractor to verify and comply with all site conditions, code authorities, governing bodies, (and it goes on...)."
Now add a few"...for no additional compensation..." and "...the architect's interpretation shall be final..." clauses into the pot-blend in boatloads of superfluous and boiler-plate specification and voila, you've whipped up a bewilderingly obtuse (but effective) architectural-indemnity souffle.
So, when disputes do arise, our (occasional) victories become more a product of defiant stands, stubborn ranting & raving, and drawing lines in the sand than of our actual detailed rights. Having few tools to work with, we're often left with only the more extreme retaliatory measures of filing hens, legal action (generally threat only remember, we've entered into their contract so it's not likely we'll score many legal victories), and-in extreme cases - work stoppages-not be cause we want to... but because it's all we have left.
10) Regardless of reasons 1 through 9, we keep doing what we're doing.
Good for us!