Top Ten Most Important Clauses Of a Construction Contract

CONSTRUCTION projects are extremely complex undertakings and are usually governed by highly detailed contracts. While any one of hundreds of clauses in a large contract can be crucial, certain issues are important on almost every job.

This paper addresses what the authors consider to be the ten most important clauses in a typical construction contract. We believe that focusing on these clauses prior to commencing a construction project will reduce the likelihood of disputes during and after the work. For each clause, we spell out the issue and its importance to the project, then set out the most common approaches used by owners, contactors, and designers. We often make reference to the standard form contracts promulgated by the American Institute of Architects ("AIA"), since those are a comprehensive and widely-used standard in the building industry.1