Construction Claims Experts

Steve Holloway and the Holloway Consulting Group, LLC are Denver, Colorado-based construction claims experts. Construction claims analysis has been our core practice area since 1997.  The construction claims experts at the Holloway Consulting Group, LLC have collectively prepared and analyzed 1000+ construction claims over the past 40+ years. Our clients have included claimants and defendants in arbitration and litigation, and all parties involved along the construction project continuum.

Depending on which party is assessing and determining the causes for construction claims, the perspectives cover a broad range. When construction claim causation is viewed in terms of the current practices that are associated with increased risk of miscalculation or escalation of construction costs, the following consistently appear as factors:

Contractor Causes

1. Inadequate project investigation before bidding.
2. Unbalanced or deficient cost estimating and bidding.
3. Failure to clearly state all bid inclusions and exclusions.
4. Bidding at or below cost hoping to realize profit via change orders.
5. Poor or nonexistent job planning and scheduling.
6. Failure to follow key provisions of the contract.
7. Assigning unqualified or under-qualified personnel.
8. Poor subcontractor performance.

Owner/A-E Causes

1. The owner’s failure to adjust the schedule, or grant a time extension, even in the face of valid contractor claims.
2. Changed conditions relating to the contract between the Owner and Contractor that are so dramatically different as to render the original agreement void.
3. Conditions outside the base agreement that are unilaterally imposed by the Owner onto the Contractor.
4. Contract documents that contain errors and omissions, code violations, or a lack of inter-discipline coordination.
5. Failure of one or more of the parties to perform in a timely manner, thereby delaying the other party.
6. Failure of the owner’s agent to perform proper investigation of subsurface and/or site conditions.
7. Changes in the work unilaterally imposed by the owner onto the contractor.
8. Conditions known only by the owner that will adversely affect the contractor’s performance.
9. Project conditions not contained in the contract documents that prevent a party from performing efficiently.
10. Overzealous, deficient, or unreasonable performance on the part of an Owner’s agent.
11. Unilateral or uncompensated suspension of the contractor’s work.
12. Contracts that are terminated by the owner, either for convenience or for cause.
13. Abnormal or unusual weather conditions.
14. Untimely delivery or deficiency in a component furnished by the owner.
    There may, of course, be other causes of contractor claims, but the foregoing represents causes that repeatedly occur on construction projects.

Types of Entitlement

Contract disputes that arise in engineering, manufacturing, and construction contracts have grown more complex with each passing year. However, for the purposes of the claim evaluation, the causal factors can be associated with a few basic types of entitlement. Although a steady flow of new construction case law continues to modify entitlement theory, as of today, at least sixteen types of entitlement have emerged from the federal court system:

1. Acceleration
2. Cardinal Change
3. Constructive Change
4. Contract Termination
5. Defective and Deficient Contract Documents
6. Delay
7. Differing Site Conditions
8. Directed Change
9. Implied Warranty
10. Impossibility of Performance
11. Maladministration
12. Owner-Furnished Items
13. Strikes
14. Superior Knowledge
15. Weather
16. Work Suspension