Condo Media - April 2020 - 50

The Region

MASSACHUSETTS

Good Choices
Stopped There
How Not to Handle
a Construction Project
[by Haley Byron, Esq., and John Shaffer, Esq.]

Sooner or later, a condominium association will need to plan an extensive
construction project. Even before the
shovel hits the dirt, project planning
can get messy. It's a dirty job, but every
association will have to do it.
How a board approaches a major
construction project will impact the
degree to which unit owners object
to the project, the overall cost of the
project and the extent to which the
project actually addresses the problems
that the project was intended to correct.
While we have seen many associations
successfully plan a significant construction project, it is more instructive (and
perhaps more entertaining) to detail
how a condominium association should
not handle such a project. Take for the
example the following project:
The board in this case was in a tough
spot. Local municipal officials had
identified a wide range of significant
deficiencies and code violations in the
construction of nearly all of the buildings in this 100-unit condominium and
ordered the board to address them. The
estimated cost of fixing the problem was
in excess of $1 million. The association
started off on the right foot by engaging
an engineering firm to help them define
the scope of the necessary repairs and to
develop the plans and specifications for
the project. The board also reached out to
the association's attorney for advice on a
wide range of applicable topics including
project funding, unit owner responsibilities, contracts with various entities
involved in the project, etc.-another

50

CONDOMEDIA April 2020

course of action that we
wholeheartedly endorse.
But the good choices
stopped there.
GOOD GONE BAD
First, after learning the scope and cost of
the project, the board levied a special assessment to finance the project without
providing owners with any specifics beyond a threat to sue owners who failed
to pay their share of the assessment
within 30 days. There was no advance
warning that a substantial assessment
was being discussed, no explanation of
why the construction work was needed,
how the situation with the town was
being addressed, what the project would
entail and how it was being managed-
just a statement saying in essence,
"We're undertaking a $1 million project
and need this assessment to pay for it."
Just because the board did not need
unit owner approval to proceed with the
project, did not mean the board should
have kept the unit owners in the dark.
Second, instead of soliciting competitive bids from independent general
contractors (recommended for larger
projects unless there is some specific reason such as the urgency of the project to
choose otherwise), the board did not put
the project out to the bid and acted as its
own general contractor-meaning that
the association directly engaged a large
number of individual subcontractors
(companies with whom one of the board
members was familiar). The board negotiated all of these inadequate contracts

on their own, with no outside legal help
(and contrary to their attorney's advice).
Third, because the board didn't go
through a competitive bidding process,
it didn't have an engineer or other design professional develop detailed plans
and specifications defining the scope of
the work to be performed, the materials
to be used and the standards to be met.
In addition to ensuring that competing contractors are basing their bids
on the same specifications, the design
documents are an essential part of the
contract between the association and
the selected contractor, making it very
difficult for contractors to contend that
they weren't expecting to do the work
described for the amount specified.
The board also didn't have an
attorney draft or even review the
construction contract(s) before signing
them. Most of the contract problems
community associations encounter
arise not because one party is trying
to take unfair advantage of another,
but because the parties have different
expectations that the contract failed to
recognize and reconcile. For that reason, a contract for a construction project
of any significance should be as specific
and as detailed as possible, leaving as
little as possible open to the imagination
or interpretation of either party.



Condo Media - April 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Condo Media - April 2020

Contents
Condo Media - April 2020 - BB1
Condo Media - April 2020 - BB2
Condo Media - April 2020 - Cover1
Condo Media - April 2020 - Cover2
Condo Media - April 2020 - Contents
Condo Media - April 2020 - 2
Condo Media - April 2020 - 3
Condo Media - April 2020 - 4
Condo Media - April 2020 - 5
Condo Media - April 2020 - 6
Condo Media - April 2020 - 7
Condo Media - April 2020 - 8
Condo Media - April 2020 - 9
Condo Media - April 2020 - 10
Condo Media - April 2020 - 11
Condo Media - April 2020 - 12
Condo Media - April 2020 - 13
Condo Media - April 2020 - 14
Condo Media - April 2020 - 15
Condo Media - April 2020 - 16
Condo Media - April 2020 - 17
Condo Media - April 2020 - 18
Condo Media - April 2020 - 19
Condo Media - April 2020 - 20
Condo Media - April 2020 - 21
Condo Media - April 2020 - 22
Condo Media - April 2020 - 23
Condo Media - April 2020 - 24
Condo Media - April 2020 - 25
Condo Media - April 2020 - 26
Condo Media - April 2020 - 27
Condo Media - April 2020 - 28
Condo Media - April 2020 - 29
Condo Media - April 2020 - 30
Condo Media - April 2020 - 31
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Condo Media - April 2020 - 33
Condo Media - April 2020 - 34
Condo Media - April 2020 - 35
Condo Media - April 2020 - 36
Condo Media - April 2020 - 37
Condo Media - April 2020 - 38
Condo Media - April 2020 - 39
Condo Media - April 2020 - 40
Condo Media - April 2020 - 41
Condo Media - April 2020 - 42
Condo Media - April 2020 - 43
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Condo Media - April 2020 - 45
Condo Media - April 2020 - 46
Condo Media - April 2020 - 47
Condo Media - April 2020 - 48
Condo Media - April 2020 - 49
Condo Media - April 2020 - 50
Condo Media - April 2020 - 51
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Condo Media - April 2020 - 54
Condo Media - April 2020 - 55
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Condo Media - April 2020 - 57
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Condo Media - April 2020 - 60
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Condo Media - April 2020 - 62
Condo Media - April 2020 - 63
Condo Media - April 2020 - 64
Condo Media - April 2020 - Cover3
Condo Media - April 2020 - Cover4
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