ConsensusDocs Releases New Contracts for its General Contracting and CM Sets of Documents

Contract for Public State and Federally-assisted Infrastructure Projects Will Help Public Owners Get Better Project Results

The ConsensusDocs Coalition recently published a new standard contract with integrated general conditions for a public works project, the ConsensusDocs 210. ConsensusDocs has tailored and oriented the terms and conditions of the document for public works owner projects that use state public funding or federal financial assistance and that are highly-engineered construction projects, such as water and wastewater facilities. This new document is expected to be particularly helpful for local and state governments that seek an off-the-shelf contract solution.

The ConsensusDocs 210 is based on the same fair and balanced, best practice principles as the previously-published ConsensusDocs 200 agreement. “Creating a standard contract tailored for public works will help public owners get the best prices from the best general contractors, especially on underground projects where site conditions are potentially involved,” said Charles Surasky, Chair of the ConsensusDocs working group that created the document and Partner at Smith, Currie & Hancock LLP in Atlanta, GA.

In support of the ConsensusDocs 210, the Coalition is also publishing the ConsensusDocs 271, Instruction to Bidders on Public Works. This new, standard instructions document will benefit all stakeholders to public projects. One of the distinctions in public projects is that the engineer is more likely (than on vertical construction) to be the lead design professional on the project. Originally, the agreement was going to include exhibits to comply with federal regulations, but based on owner feedback, ConsensusDocs determined that the industry would be best served if individual agencies created their own exhibits and supplements to the agreement. This is one of the ways that the drafters strived to make the agreement flexible to meet public local, state and federal projects.

Agreement Between Owner and Construction Manager (CM Does Not Provide General Conditions) Provides Greater Clarity

In March, the ConsensusDocs Coalition published a new Construction Management Agency standard agreement, ConsensusDocs 831, Agreement Between Owner and Construction Manager (CM Does Not Provide General Conditions). In addition providing an alternative to the recently released ConsensusDocs 830 Agreement (in which the CM provides General Conditions), the new 831 agreement provides greater clarity in defining costs, fees and profit to avoid potential claims. Current standard contracts vary greatly in defining fees, profit and overhead on general conditions items. This agreement was structured to minimize those disputes.

“The new agreement provides needed clarity in determining fees, costs and profit to assist Owners and CMs. Current standard CM Agency contracts, other than the ConsensusDocs 830 (released in January), do a poor job of delineating fees, costs and profit, which inevitably leads to payment issues,” said Melissa Beutler, Vice-Chair of the ConsensusDocs Drafting Council.

Request a Free Sample ConsensusDocs Contract

Remember that full, sample ConsensusDocs contracts can be requested. To request a full sample ConsensusDocs contract for your internal review purposes, fill out the ConsensusDocs Sample Request form that is at www.consensusdocs.org. Note that any use of the contract, other than for internal review purposes, must come from a valid subscription purchase at www.consensusdocs.org.

Copyright Licensing
Anyone interested in using ConsensusDocs for educational or legal research purposes can apply for a free ConsensusDocs copyright license. Once the application is processed, applicants will receive a numbered copyright license letter and full watermarked samples of the requested documents. Licenses must be renewed on a yearly basis, and are contingent upon compliance with the terms of the license letter. To complete an application for copyright licensing, visit the resources page at ConsensusDocs.org.

FREE Live Training ConsensusDocs Platform Webinars in 2014 
ConsensusDocs has the following FREE Live Training Webinars scheduled to help anyone learn how to get started with ConsensusDocs’ Online Cloud Platform:

Tuesday, May 13, 2014, 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM ET
Wednesday, June 11, 2014, 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM ET
Thursday, July 10, 2014, 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM ET
Tuesday, August 19, 2014, 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM ET
Thursday, September 18, 2014, 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM ET
Wednesday, October 8, 2014, 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM ET
Wednesday, November 11, 2014, 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM ET – (Links to come soon)
Wednesday, December 11, 2014, 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM ET – (Links to come soon)

To register for the above free Webinars, visit the Webinar page at ConsensusDocs.org.

Remember: The NASBP membership receives a 20% discount on all ConsensusDocs purchases. Simply use Discount Code “NASBP400” when prompted at purchase at www.ConsensusDocs.org.

ConsensusDocs Documents are the only contracts endorsed by 40 leading design and construction industry organizations. Offering a library of 100+ contract documents addressing all methods of project delivery, ConsensusDocs incorporate fair risk allocation and best practices to represent the project’s best interests. Coalition members represent design professionals, owners, contractors, subcontractors and sureties (DOCS). For more information, visit www.ConsensusDocs.org, call 1-866-925-DOCS (3627) or email support@ConsensusDocs.org.

NASBP is an endorsing organization of the ConsensusDocs coalition, an unprecedented effort by 41 industry organizations to identify industry best practices and to incorporate such practices in a new generation of construction industry standard form documents. Find out more at the NASBP’s involvement with ConsensusDocs by clicking here.