You Need to Have A Written Contract.

The first question that your insurer or attorney will ask you when a dispute arises on a construction project is: “Did you have a written contract?” Frequently, the answer is “No.” The top 6 reasons given:
6. The project is small and it just didn’t seem necessary;
5. The work needed to be done right away and there just wasn’t time;
4. The contractor/design professional didn’t want to rock the boat with the Owner;
3. You don’t have a standard form to use;
2. You didn’t want to spend the time or money to hire an attorney to draft a form; and
1. You never needed one in the past because a hand shake has always worked before. (this is a favorite)
Even if the project is only for $300 of work, you need to establish everyone’s expectations. Even the most sophisticated clients do not (but need to) fully understand the role of architects, engineers and contractors. They might think that their architect is supervising their project, inspecting all of the work, and guaranteeing that all of the work will be done right even though the architect thinks he is simply making periodic site observations. A potential partner who doesn’t want to have a written contract, is someone to avoid.
Protect yourself. A contract – even a simple one – can help protect you against claims and limit your potential exposure. Spending $30,000 in defense costs for a $300 fee isn’t a good business strategy and can be avoided with a good contract. In future posts, we will talk about some of the contract terms you might include.