San Antonio—ż of America (ż) today approved a comprehensive catalog of construction contract documents, a collaborative effort of leading construction associations aimed at bringing fair and balanced documents to market.
“Using consensus contracts brings everyone together in the drafting process, just like a real construction project,” said Stephen E. Sandherr, chief executive officer of ż today during the association’s 88th Annual Convention in San Antonio, Texas.
The leading construction associations representing owners, contractors, designers and sureties are uniting to better serve the industry by producing balanced contracts that are actively supported by all parties. The level of diverse buy-in for these contracts is unprecedented and reflects a genuine effort to work collaboratively to determine industry best practices for standard form contracts.
Contracts with widespread backing will save transactional time and money by eliminating the need to repetitively negotiate one-sided terms. The contract documents will comprise construction contracts and forms pertaining to design-bid-build, design-build, construction management. In addition, a new document will address the use of information in electronic format, and thereby facilitate the use of building information modeling (BIM).
Specifically, ż is approving the following consensus contracts that will replace the corresponding ż contracts:
- Standard Agreement and General Conditions Between Owner and Contractor
- Electronic Communications Addendum
- Standard Agreement Between Owner and Architect/Engineer
- Standard Agreement and General Conditions Between Owner and Design-Builder
- Standard Agreement and General Conditions Between Owner and Construction Manager (At-Risk)
- Standard Agreement Between Contractor and Subcontractor
Several participating associations, including ż and the Construction Owners Association of America (COAA), are expected to fold their current documents program into this consensus process. Currently, ż produces more than 100 contract documents which cover all project delivery methods and are highly regarded in the construction as well as legal communities.
ż of America (ż) is the largest and oldest national construction trade association in the United States. ż represents more than 32,000 firms, including 7,000 of America’s leading general contractors, and over 11,000 specialty-contracting firms. More than 13,000 service providers and suppliers are associated with ż through a nationwide network of chapters. Visit the ż Web site at . ż members are "Building Your Quality of Life.”