Holloway Consulting is a construction defects expert. Clients across the U.S. have retained us on a variety of cases. These include a wide variety of commercial, residential, and industrial construction disputes. Our clients include plaintiff homeowners associations, plaintiff contractors, defendant contractors and design professionals, and third-party and fourth-party contractors. Predictably, a large segment of our defects consulting and expert witness work involves the analysis of design and construction defect issues. This also includes design professional standard of care and GC/CM contractor standard of care issues.
Holloway Consulting initially performs on-site investigations to identify the various distresses and non-performances of building materials, products, assemblies, systems, and components, along with the causes(s) of the construction defects. Additionally, Holloway provides general construction defects repair and building remediation recommendations to correct identified defects and deficiencies, and to establish the probable costs associated with the construction defect repairs.
CONSTRUCTION DEFECT EXPERT COST OF REPAIR DAMAGES
Holloway is often retained as the construction defects liability expert and/or as the construction defects cost of repair expert to allocate construction defects cost of repair damages between the responsible parties participating in a construction project. The process of allocating construction defects cost of repair damages can be summarized in several steps:
1. Identifying the parties potentially responsible for designing, installing, supervising, inspecting, approving, and maintaining the work,
2. Identifying the parties responsible for designing, installing, supervising, inspecting, approving and maintaining the work,
3. Establishing the percentage of responsibility that each party bears, and,
4. Establishing the amount of repair cost that each party bears, i.e., repair cost allocation.
Investigating Construction Defects
Problems that arise on completed construction projects may be attributable to:
1. Normal wear and tear,
2. Improper maintenance or operation by the owner,
3. Imperfect workmanship, or
4. Materials or components that are not suitable for their intended purpose.
Only the last group, involving true construction defects and any resultant damages, should be the subject of a defects claim. Occasionally, such defects evade the inspection and punch-list process and tend to be intermittent in nature, particularly those that cause functional failures in the building enclosure. As a result, by the time a problem has become a potential defect, the building is occupied, and the architect and contractor have been paid and are tied to the project only through warranty provisions.
The owner temporarily owns the problem regardless of who may ultimately be held responsible. The architect and contractor are unaware of the problem and would be unlikely to unilaterally initiate investigative action. The owner owns the problems, and he or she also controls the options. With the necessary information and technical assistance, the owner will be able to undertake the appropriate investigative action.
Cost of Construction Defects
The cost of construction defects repair allocation analyses is similar in many ways to the causation analyses we perform on other types of construction claims and disputes. A sizable portion of our construction defects consultant and expert witness services been associated with determinations of whether the building defects and damage claims resulted directly from the insured’s defective workmanship or from consequential causes.