Houses of worship and other not-for-profit institutions NFP, have particular difficulties when a construction or remodeling project is saddled with multiple change orders and/or scheduling delays. Change orders that are unanticipated often put the project over budget, and scheduling delays increase the cost of borrowing construction funds. Both events may happen; both can be successfully resolved, often in the institution’s favor.
Houses of worship and other NFPs typically have difficulty in dealing with contractors who are skilled in creating cost overruns. A house of worship’s Board of Overseers or the Board of Trustees for the NFP will naturally become concerned and should seek legal counsel if these issues arise. Kasdan Weber Turner has assisted various houses of worship in such circumstances. Our firm takes particular pride in assisting these organizations because of the valuable societal, moral, and cultural missions that these institutions undertake.
The management of documents is the number one challenge in construction claims and the firms approach is to designate a senior attorney to personally discover, review, and organize the majority of pertinent documents during all phases of the mediation or litigation. We do this because not all important documents are made available by the contractor. Once these documents have been properly identified and analyzed, the resulting negotiations toward settlement may accelerate to successful conclusion.
One example of this approach would be when Kasdan LippSmith Weber Turner assisted a church in completing a new church building. Our firm helped move the Church Board from a project plagued with change orders, cost overruns, substantial delays, and serious defects, to a fully completed structure. The church also received monetary compensation.
