Construction disputes can be a nightmare. No one enjoys getting stuck in the middle of one, especially if you don’t think you did anything wrong. The best path is to avoid it in the first place With these tips, you can minimize your risk.

Review Your Contracts
Many people start out by building contracts using boilerplates that they can find online. But in a lot of cases, those boilerplates don’t provide the clarity that you need for the type of projects you do. They may also be outdated, failing to address current issues in the construction industry, like the labor shortage or supply chain issues. Take the time to review all of your contract language. Break it up into pieces so that you don’t start to skim. Underline passages that don’t make sense or seem too vague. That will give you a jumping-off point to improve them.

Hire a Professional to Clarify Language
If you ever end up in a dispute, you’re probably going to need a lawyer to help you negotiate it. You may be able to save yourself a lot of time and hassle by hiring a lawyer to review your contract language, as well. Lawyers with experience in contract disputes in construction may be able to tell you which terms are more likely to become an issue in a dispute, as well as better alternatives. It can be a significant investment of funds. But the comfort and assurance of knowing that your contracts are legal and specific could go a long way toward helping you negotiate with new clients with confidence.

Update Your Business Practices
Although contract disputes often involve some issue with the contract language, there are plenty of other problems that can trigger a dispute. If your business practices are inconsistent with your contract language, you could easily end up with a dispute. Despite the fact that many construction firms consider overspending and delivering late to be the standard, you don’t have to assume that for your own business. Take the time to examine your business practices and see which areas could be improved. Getting better at estimating costs or delivery time might be the difference between a satisfied client and an angry one.

Resolve Issues Early
As with most aspects of construction, the sooner you find a problem, the better off you are. It’s easy to assume that early issues will resolve themselves in time, but it doesn’t always work out that way. If you seem to have problems communicating with the client or reaching consensus from the outset, you should pause on progress to negotiate them. After all, someone who is unhappy with the approach you are taking during design or planning is more likely to raise issues with the results of those stages. Investing the time to make sure everyone is on the same page gives you a better assurance of a satisfactory end result.

Be Transparent About Expectations
Transparency is the best path to ensuring that your client understands your obligations and confirming that you can meet their expectations. A lack of communication or delays in the delivery of things like project plans can put people in the position of rushing through important review and negotiation stages. It can be annoying to deal with a client who constantly wants to change the scope, but the solution is not to keep everything under wraps until you’re ready to start construction. Work on hammering out the issues as they come up, and you’ll be more likely to solve them before it’s too late.

Avoiding disputes isn’t always possible, but you can reduce the likelihood. To learn more about starting your career in construction, contact CSLS today!