What Are You Really Signing - Reasons Not To Use Form Contracts

Often, Architects, Builders, Contractors and Subcontractors gravitate towards the use of standard form contracts instead of customizing a contract to fit their particular needs. After all, if a form contract is good enough for them, it’s good enough for you – right? The fallacy in this thinking is, not only may the procedures in the form contract not match how you want to run your project, but you also may not realize rights you could be waiving under form contract. For example, even though AIA contracts are widely used and perhaps strive to be a “fair” contract, as a builder or owner of a project, if you use the standard form AIA series of contracts, both you and the contractor will be waiving your rights to seek certain damages due to delays caused by the other party. For an owner, this could be devastating as you are waiving ALL damages due to lost rents, etc……….