Warranty Claims
Warranty Claims
In Minnesota, residential contractors are required to provide specific warranty coverage to homeowners. The statutory warranty includes required coverages and the process for making warranty claims. Contractors are legally obligated to provide warranty coverage for the entire project, including the work of their sub-contractors, which puts them at risk of being accountable for work they did not perform themselves.
Our background in law, business, and construction gives us a deep understanding of the warranty claim process. Our attorneys can help you decide whether the homeowner’s claim is viable to determine your obligation to repair.
HELPING YOU MAKE AN INFORMED BUSINESS DECISION
PROCESS
What is our process?
We want to understand how you define a successful outcome. For transactional issues, what are the important issues that need to be addressed in the document we are drafting? For disputes, what is the desired resolution or outcome?
Step One: Learn your objectives and goals
For transactional, we draft a document that will achieve the desired outcome and reflect the client’s business. For disputes, we uphold the obligations stated in the contracts and/or determine reasonable remedies for issues not addressed in the contract.
Step Three: Craft the strategy
For transactional, what have the parties agreed to and has an agreement been reached on all the key issues? For disputes, we need to know whether the contract addresses the issue, how it was addressed, who’s at fault, and what damages resulted
Step Two: Understand your concerns and issues
Following the strategy developed with and approved by the client, we move to achieve the intended result. Whether drafting a document or resolving a dispute, we’ll keep you informed on how things are going so you can focus on your business.
Step Four: Implement the remedy
Common Issues
Courts have expanded the warranty exposure of most contractors beyond the simple language of the law. Without a thorough understanding of the statutory warranty, contractors can find themselves at a significant disadvantage and exposed to expensive construction warranty claims. At MNCLS, we protect your rights as a contractor and make sure you are not held responsible for a claim that you are not liable for.
WARRANTY CLAIMS
We can help you understand if your business is responsible for the issues reported under the warranty claim. From there, we will guide you through the resolution process (if applicable) or help you understand your rights as a contractor.
Ultimately, this is a business decision. Depending on the situation, it may be easier to complete the task than to dispute the claim. Doing so can strengthen your business reputation while preserving your relationship with the homeowner. Yet in some scenarios, if the cost of repair is too high and you are not responsible for the claim, you may choose not to do the repair.
The statutory warranty requires that you conduct an inspection and provide a plan of repair. If the inspection shows the claim is valid, the plan of repair must describe how and when the repair will be done. If the claim does not fall within the warranty, the written report must say so. The law has specific deadlines for completing the inspection and providing the plan of repair.
We can make sure your process for responding to a warranty claim meets your obligations to prevent the homeowner from filing a lawsuit.