August 23, 2010
Construction law
The risks of LEED certification for contractors
Contractors need to be aware of the risk factors associated with the LEED rating system, says a construction lawyer at one of the country’s leading legal firms.
The LEED program certifies existing buildings, new construction, homes, commercial interiors, core and shell projects, neighborhood development (in pilot), schools, health facilities and retail projects.
“The principal risk factor arises out of the fact that LEED certification is issued by a third party,” said Geza Banfai, a partner with Heenan Blaikie LLP in Toronto, during the Canadian Construction Association’s spring meeting in Regina.
“This is a risk that contractors have limited or no ability to control.”
And that risk factor gives rise to a couple of potential problems, Banfai noted.
“The first is that the certificate may not be issued at all (by the third party), due to the fault of someone other than the contractor,” he said.
“More commonly, the second risk factor that might arise would be a delay in the issuance of that certificate. I understand that the certification of LEED compliance can often be delayed by weeks, perhaps months, after the substantial completion or substantial performance of the work.”
VIDEO: B.C. Construction Association welcomes standardized contract forms
Standardized construction documents are long overdue, says the president of the B.C. Construction Association.
Port Mann Bridge under construction
Time-lapse footage shows the progress of construction of the new Port Mann Bridge in Metro Vancouver.
VIDEO: How effective has stimulus spending been?
If you want a good indication of how effective government stimulus spending has been in Canada, look at the “remarkable” institutional starts statistics for the first half of 2010, CanaData chief economist Alex Carrick says.
VIDEO: Owners must lead charge toward BIM adoption
The greatest challenge in getting the architecture, engineering and construction industries to embrace building information modeling is convincing individual players they’d be better off working collaboratively, says the chair of the Canada BIM Council.
VIDEO: Canada’s economy is slowing down
As fall approaches, the Canadian economy is slowing down, but this lower growth is due to factors that beyond the nation’s control, says CanaData Chief Economist Alex Carrick.
VIDEO: Canada should embrace rainscreen cladding systems
Canada has been too slow to embrace rainscreen cladding systems, despite the advantages they offer in terms of better performance, low-cost maintenance and longer-lasting structures, says a distributor of architectural building products.
VIDEO: Ontario General Contractors Association shows support for Gold Seal
All the directors on the board of the Ontario General Contractors Association have become Gold Seal Champions, part of an effort to help promote the national construction certification program.
VIDEO: Green building critical in triple bottom line accounting
Building design and construction standards will undergo significant changes as “triple bottom line” accounting becomes more commonplace in the industry, says a Saskatchewan-based economist.
VIDEO: Boom truck tips over at Vancouver condo project
A boom truck tipped over while delivering lumber to a low-rise condominium construction project in Vancouver’s trendy Kitsilano neighbourhood, near Vine Street and First Avenue.
