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The only book on the market to focus specifically on construction defects and how to resolve conflicts that arise from them.
Defect-Free Buildings offers an innovative new approach to avoiding the costs, delays and disputes that result from construction defects. Written by a lawyer with 25 years' experience as an arbitrator and mediator, this resource is filled with easy-to-understand guidelines, techniques, protocols and checklists for preventing construction defects and resolving any ensuing disputes.
Eliminate construction mistakes and minimize your exposure to expense and litigation.
Nothing packs a more costly punch and ruins a project faster than a construction defect dispute. And nothing stops a project dead in its tracks faster than conflicts between builders and owners. But with Defect-Free Buildings you can rid your projects of these debilitating conflicts and protect your business against the costs, delays and litigation they create.
Filled with easy-to-understand guidelines, protocols, and checklists, this indispensable volume helps you:
- Determine proper construction methods and costs during planning and bidding.
- Avoid defects in the building stages and enhance quality control.
- Obtain the proper insurance and satisfy underwriting requirements.
- Reduce or eliminate the threat and cost of litigation.
To help you minimize cost and lost time when disputes become unavoidable, Defect-Free Buildings also delivers a wide range of powerful conflict-resolution techniques. You'll learn how to:
- Get the right contract in place.
- Develop forms and documents that minimize or eliminate disputes and delays in payment.
- Document construction conditions to avoid potential conflicts and owner claims.
- Resolve conflicts effectively.
- And more!
Written by a construction attorney with more than 25 years' experience as an arbitrator and mediator, Defect-Free Buildings is the money-saving resource you'll want within reach on every construction job.
From the Introduction
If you are a contractor, architect, engineer, or developer, would you like to build a better product and reduce the chance of getting sued for construction defects or breach of contract? If you are a homeowner or developer, would you like to have a better built home, condominium, or commercial project and avoid lawsuits with your contractor? If the answer to these questions is yes, this book is for you.
After 27 years as a lawyer representing owners and contractors in construction disputes, helping parties resolve hundreds of such disputes in the capacity of mediator and deciding such disputes as an arbitrator, I realized that the same construction problems occur over and over again. I wrote this book because I believe that if owners and construction professionals had a better understanding of why construction problems arise, they could easily avoid those problems and the lawsuits that inevitably follow. By avoiding construction problems, contractors, subcontractors, and design professionals can make more money and build better projects. Owners and developers can have better buildings, and both sides in the construction process can avoid the cost and misery of litigation.
Many contract disputes between owners and contractors are the result of bad communication. Some disputes result from bad construction. This book will help you avoid disputes that result from both causes. If you should find yourself in a dispute, and if you have followed the advice in this book, you will be in a better legal position and it will cost you less in your lawsuit.
None of the recommendations in this book are intended to substitute for a contractor's years of experience in the building industry. Rather, these suggestions are intended to help contractors use their expertise in a better way, to improve their business relationships, to enable them to make more money on their jobs, and to build better buildings.
Likewise, these recommendations will help owners and developers identify potential problem areas in advance of the construction process, manage the process more effectively and efficiently, and get better results without spending more money.
Contents:
Chapter 1: A Basic Primer on the Construction Process. Chapter 2: The Construction Contract. Chapter 3: Why Do Contractors Get Sued? Chapter 4: Background to Construction Defect Law. Chapter 5: The Most Common Construction Defects and How to Avoid Them. Chapter 6: Using Plans, Specifications, and Contract Terms to Avoid Defects. Chapter 7: Document Control. Chapter 8: Managing Conflict during Construction. Chapter 9: Cost-Saving Techniques. Chapter 10: The Lawsuit - What Happens Next? Chapter 11: Conclusion. Appendices. Bibliography. Index.
About the Author
Robert S Mann (Los Angeles, CA) is one of California's leading construction lawyers, mediators, and arbitrators. He obtained the largest construction defect arbitration award in California history - $90 million - in a case involving the defective construction of the Shutters on the Beach Hotel in Santa Monica, California. During his 29 years of practice, he has represented some of the largest developers of multi-family housing in the United States in construction matters involving tens of millions of dollars. His private clients include the Marciano family, the owners of Guess? Inc, and many prominent members of the business and entertainment industry.
Mann is a member of the National Panel of Construction Neutral Arbitrators and Mediators of the American Arbitration Association, and he provides arbitration and mediation services through the AAA, ADR Services, Inc, in Century City, California, and Forum Dispute Management in Los Angeles, California. He is the principal of The Mann Law Firm, the practice of which is devoted to the litigation, arbitration, and mediation of construction matters. He has successfully tried more than 60 jury trials to verdict and has won many multi-million dollar verdicts and settlements. He lectures and writes extensively on construction issues and has successfully mediated more than 100 cases. |
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