I was holding an annual surety account meeting out on the golf course one day with the agent and the contractor. This contractor works primarily as a subcontractor. He is financially strong and has a great reputation. I jokingly said: “If you are going to work as a subcontractor and insist on maintaining such a…
You may refer to them as Good Guy Letters, Sunshine Letters or just a Contractor Letter of Bondability. These letters have been around a long time, and their popularity has seen an uptick in recent years. What does a letter of bondability do? This letter provides evidence that the contractor has a surety relationship. It might…
If you were to ask contractors what they like most about construction, they probably wouldn’t say, “I love preparing bids.” Most contractors love being on the job site, not being cooped up in an office working on numbers. Yet contractors get the majority of their business from bidding on projects. The most successful ones have…
The top reasons contractor succession planning has evolved The following is a guest post from Wayne Rivers, co-founder and president of The Family Business Institute. Succession planning has always been a hot topic among contractors of a certain age, and that’s not likely to change. What has most definitely changed, however, is that today’s discussions…
US construction costs rose 5.7% in 2018 Dive Brief: Construction costs in the U.S. rose 5.7% in 2018, according to Rider Levett Bucknall’s First Quarter 2019 North American Quarterly Construction Cost Report. Of the 12 U.S. metros in RLB’s report, those experiencing the biggest cost increases were Chicago (7.6%); Portland, Oregon (7.1%); San Francisco (6.7%); Phoenix (6.7%); Washington, D.C….
Project labor agreements (PLAs) are a frequent point of contention in the construction industry, particularly when private contractors are forced to sign these typically union-negotiated deals. The pushback is strong enough that stakeholders are doing what they can to get government-mandated PLAs banned at both the state and federal level. In the simplest terms, a PLA is…
Federal Court in Maryland Holds Subcontractor Waived Right to Bring Labor Inefficiency Claim Despite Voicing ‘Expression[s] of Frustration’ and ‘General Complaints’ of Mismanagement Throughout Project Hagen Constr. Inc. v. Whiting-Turner Contracting Co., No. JKB-18-1201, 2019 BL 36862 (D. Md. Feb. 04, 2019) This case arose out of the construction of an inn and conference center…
To some of my fellow insurance professionals, the surety business has always had an air of mystery about it. Perhaps it is the exotic language we use referring to “Obligee’s” and “Principals”. Maybe it is the surety underwriter’s ability to quickly unlock the secrets of a client’s financial statement and translate a page of…
Michigan’s two peninsulas were finally connected in 1957, after 20 years of planning, and close to $100 million in construction and engineering costs with the construction of a bridge crossing the Straits of Mackinac. But the work didn’t stop there. Something this beautiful and majestic needs constant upkeep. This engineering marvel needs constant maintenance, cleaning…
I remember receiving a particular account submission some years ago. The agent told me I was going to see some distress in their financial trend, but there were extenuating circumstances. The contractor’s significant other had been very ill for some time and the contractor’s focus had shifted to her and things slipped on the management…