If a client complains about a construction defect, they might automatically assume the last people in the process were to blame. If you own a construction company, that may mean they expect you to make amends.
Yet clients often do not see, understand or think about all the steps it took to make a piece of work happen. They might never consider that it is possible you carried out the work exactly as you were expected to and that someone else is to blame for the issue.
There are three main points at which a construction defect could occur. Let’s look at them working backward.
In the construction phase
If you or one of your employees did not do their job with appropriate care, then that would likely be on you. The same could occur if someone you subcontracted failed to carry out the work to the appropriate standard. While you might be able to try and hold them responsible, the client may argue that, as the general contractor, you should have supervised the work and spotted any issues with someone’s craftsmanship.
In the purchasing phase
You will have used a lot of different materials to carry out the work and relied on one or more suppliers to provide you with those materials. It may be that one of the materials was faulty when the supplier delivered it to you. That could be their fault, such as if they did not store the material correctly or dropped it while moving it around, causing structural damage that might not have been visible. Alternatively, the materials might have been substandard when they arrived on the supplier’s doorstep. Maybe the manufacturer made a bad batch and is, therefore, to blame.
In the design phase
Sometimes, a material that proves problematic does not have any inherent issue, it’s just that the material is the wrong one for the project. In this case, the designer or architect that stipulated the material may be to blame. For example, if their plan incorporated beams of insufficient strength for the weight they must support, or if they failed to take account of a weak subsoil that later leads to the building shifting.
A construction defect can prove costly to your balance sheet and your reputation. Learning how to react to a claim could help you protect both.