Texas Construction Law Blog

The spread of COVID-19 has severely impacted our nation and economy. We are facing lockdowns, travel bans, and massive disruptions to day-to-day activities as authorities work to stop the spread of COVID-19. As the virus-related impacts spread, parties are likely to find it increasingly difficult to meet their ...

Subcontractors have long celebrated—and general contractors long feared—the Texas Construction Trust Fund Act, codified in Chapter 162 of the Texas Property Code.  The Act, which is (ideally) construed broadly to primarily protect subcontractors, provides that payments “made to a contractor or ...

If you are involved in the construction industry, you have probably heard of or dealt with mechanic’s liens. The majority of work performed on private Texas construction projects will fall under Chapter 53 of the Texas Property Code, to which mechanic’s liens apply. However, certain projects involve work ...

Unlike with private commercial projects, liens cannot be filed against public projects in Texas. This means that unpaid subcontractors and suppliers do not have the same protections on public projects as those on private projects. On a private project, a subcontractor or supplier would ordinarily file a lien ...

Texas law has certain peculiarities which must be followed when a project is located in Texas.  To avoid surprises and unanticipated liability on construction projects, the parties should modify contracts consistent with Texas law—or at least be aware of the limitations that are in place due to certain Texas ...

What should a Subcontractor do when a General Contractor presents, to the Subcontractor, the 401A-2017 Standard Form of Agreement Between Contractor and Subcontractor (“A401”)?  While some provisions in the A401 are favorable to the Subcontractor, others are not.  This multi-part series explores some of the ...

Different types of damages may be recoverable from a breach of a design, construction, EPC or other construction-related contracts. The baseline damages are “direct” damages, which are necessarily caused by a breach and compensate for the losses, for example the costs to repair faulty work ...

Commercial construction contracts between owners and contractors, such as the form AIA Document A201 contract, often include various express warranties whereby the contractor warrants its work on the project to the owner. Among those express warranties are the more common warranties that: (i) the materials and ...

Owners of construction projects are often surprised to learn that they are required to withhold 10% retainage on private construction projects in Texas. Failure to withhold 10% can result in liability up to that amount.^[1]  Similarly, owners often continue to pay the general contractor after receiving a lien ...

The Texas Legislature is back in session, and lawmakers generally have until March 8, 2019 to file bills for consideration this session. In our original post on January 31, 2019, we identified several bills of interest to the construction industry that had been filed as of that date. Since that post, the ...