Make sure your attorney is informed about client claims

Your construction team is among the best, so you were shocked when a client came back to tell you that they wanted to file a claim for construction defects. They claim that there was damage to concrete, problems with their building’s structure and even water damage. To have all these defects, a serious problem would have had to have happened during construction, but no one on the team could think of anything that hadn’t been done correctly.

There’s a chance that all the client says is true, but the fault may not lie with you or your team. Defects could be a result of faulty materials or systems instead of defects in how the systems were installed or how the materials were used.

How can you protect yourself against the client’s claim?

It’s worth going back to the site to review the information that the client has given you and to look at the work. There’s a possibility that the client is wrong, that settling occurred naturally or that there are issues that are a result of other contractors’ work if more than one team worked on the house at any time.

If you find that mistakes were made, then it’s possible that you could settle with the owner, being able to offer repairs free of charge. In any case, it’s a good idea to involve an experienced attorney, review the contract you have with the client to determine what the best path forward is and make sure that the client’s claim has merit. Your attorney can provide more guidance in situations such as this.