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Construction Newsletter
November/December 2007 Volume XVII  Number 6

A SNAPSHOT LOOK AT CHANGES MADE TO AIA DOCUMENT A201

In releasing AIA Document A201-2007, General Conditions of the Contract for Construction, the American Institute of Architects unveiled some significant changes to their widely-used Owner-Contractor form. Though not exhaustive of all changes, this article summarizes six changes to the form agreement that will most significantly impact owners and contractors.

1. Binding arbitration is no longer a standard requirement under A201-2007. Rather, parties to the contract may subsequently agree to arbitrate their disputes. As such, owners and contractors alike should no longer assume that an individual experienced in the construction industry will serve as fact-finder and decision-maker regarding contractual disputes.

2. A201-2007 permits an owner to carry out the contractor’s work ten days after provision of notice to the contractor. Under A201-1997, the owner had to provide a first notice, wait seven days for the contractor to resume work, provide a second notice, and wait another three days before it could carry out the contractor’s work. In short, the new language requires contractors to be more proactive in responding to the owner’s demands, as failure to respond to an owner’s request to correct a perceived deficiency entitles the owner to correct such deficiency at the contractor’s expense after ten days.

3. A201-2007 provides the owner an opportunity to object to the appointment of a supervisor before the contractor begins the Project and precludes the contractor from changing the supervisor without the owner’s consent. The Architect’s approval “shall not be unreasonably delayed or withheld.” As such submittal and approval is a condition precedent to a contractor claiming an increase in Contract Sum or Contract Time, the clause presents a potential further impediment to a streamlined change order process.

4. A201-2007 provides the owner an opportunity to object to the appointment of a supervisor before the contractor begins the Project and precludes the contractor from changing the supervisor without the owner’s consent. By contrast, under A201-1997, the contractor agreed only to employ a competent superintendent to supervise the Project.

5. Under A201-2007, a contractor’s review of contract documents is not completed as a licensed design professional. The new language attempts to bar an owner from claiming that the contractor should have taken notice of a defect in design or of additional work necessary to carry out the intent of the contract documents provided by the owner. Note, however, the contractor could still be liable for failing to detect something that an experienced contractor (not a designer) should have detected.

6. A201-2007 no longer requires the owner to respond to requests for information within fifteen (15) days, providing, instead, “reasonable promptness” as the presumptive standard. Although parties may agree to a more definite time period for an owner’s response to a request for information, accepting a “reasonableness” standard may result in disputes.

As noted above, this brief summary of changes is hardly exhaustive of the differences between A201-1997 and A201- 2007. This summary does identify, however, several issues that owners and contractors should be wary of when using the new AIA documents.
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