A construction dispute can quickly bring your business to a standstill, especially if you’re working on a large project that has eaten up a lot of your resources. If you’re in that situation, then there are legal steps that you can take to protect your interests.
But if you’ve found your way here because you’re looking for ways to keep yourself out of these tense circumstances, then you might want to keep reading to figure out what you can do to minimize your risks.
Steps to take to reduce the chances of being embroiled in a construction dispute
Fortunately, there’s a lot that you can do on the front end of a project to protect your interests and avoid a construction dispute. This includes the following:
- Be careful in your contract drafting: If you leave ambiguous language in your contract, then you’re setting yourself up for potential conflict. Also, make sure that you have a full understanding of the provisions in your contract and how they protect your interests.
- Follow up with your workers: Workers can break contractual obligations at any point during a project. You’ll want to monitor them closely to ensure they’re not positioning you and your business for a dispute.
- Train your project manager: Unless you’re onsite every day, it’s going to be hard to spot every problem, and some of them won’t reach you until it’s too late. If you have a well-trained project manager, then they can help identify issues and move swiftly to remedy them before they become problematic.
- Consider integrated project delivery: Here, you work collaboratively with the other parties to the project, such as the owner, the architect, and other contractors to create mutually agreeable goals pertaining to costs, scheduling, and responsibilities. Oftentimes through this method the parties also agree to not file liability claims against each other.
Set yourself up for success
There’s a lot more you can do to protect yourself in the construction arena. But in order to do so, you’ll need to be proactive. That’s why now might be the best time to act on whatever concerns you have.
