Resolve overlooked discrepancy in Contract & A201

If the A201 states a duty of one of the parties, and then references B101 or the A101, but B101 and A101 say different. There could be many examples. Maybe a contractor’s A101 says he does not provide sanihuts…then in the A201 it says he does provide… what is the over ride? or how does this get resolved in a situation where neither can agree?

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Hi @jestes ! @heatherrivera can help you with this A201 question.

Hi @jestes,

This is a great question, but a loaded one.

I would suggest you start by looking at the A201: General Conditions of the Contract for Construction. It’s a lengthy contract and one I highly recommend with which being familiar, but for the purpose of your question, go to Article 15. There is some dispute information sprinkled throughout the contract, but the bulk of it resides here. This Article goes into claims and disputes and how they are to be handled. This will tell you that an Initial Decision Maker should render an initial decision on a claim and that this Initial Decision Maker is the architect, but there are limitations on what the architect can do, how long the architect has to render the decision, and who can be involved.

If parties cannot agree, they go to mediation for dispute resolution which shall be administered by the American Arbitration Association (unless both parties agree to use someone else). Fees for mediation are shared between the parties. Technically, a party can file for arbitration concurrently with mediation, but arbitration is usually used as a last resort.

In the example you provided, I would hope the parties could come to a compromise before a claim had to be filed. Sanihuts should be on construction sites; and in the grand scheme of things, are not a huge cost. In a case like this, I would like to think that perhaps the owner and GC split the cost and call it good and move on. If they can’t, they’ll be paying a lot more to get legal involved to solve the problem for them. Once attorneys are involved, things can shake out any which way depending on who wrote the contract, what terminology was used and what was omitted, who the mediator is, what State you’re in, etc.

Good luck with your continued studies!