A legal document that specifies the terms and conditions agreed upon between an owner of a property and the contractor is termed as Construction contract. This document not only contains information regarding constructions, alterations and/or the repair of a building or structure but also provide guidelines on matters like payment of sub contractors by contractors or deciding a timeline when a construction work should be completed. Below are answers to few of the more common legal questions about construction contract law:

Which holds more weight in a construction contract? Is it the plans or the specifications?
In general, the plans would hold more weight if there are no contradictory clauses mentioned in the contract. These types of cases are true only if the plans focus on an issue or the plans particularly mention that the specifications are more important. However, if you see that in a particular contract there is no direct mention about which one is holding more importance than the other, then the document that is more specific would need to be interoperated as the document that would hold more weight over the other. You could do this only if the terms and conditions of this document do not clash with that of the other.

If an owner in Alabama is engaged in constructing a building on land, can he or she as per the Alabama law withhold any part of the contract price from the general contractor for any specified time if there are possible pending claims for Construction Lien?
While a construction contract can have a clause like this, usually, there are no laws as such that would require such steps. In a case like this, what may happen is a contractor may not get his payments. Therefore, to avoid such circumstances, he or she needs to provide written evidence from suppliers and sub contractors mentioning that everyone has received their payments for the services that they have rendered. In future, this written statement would prevent anyone from further claiming a lien on grounds that he or she has failed to receive the payments. These standard forms are readily available with most reputable general contractors. However, there are cases, where many contractors may fail to pay their sub contractors, even though most of them are honest. If such a situation arises, the sub contractors may file a lien against the owner holding him liable to pay the debt even though the owner has already paid the fees to the general contractor.

Is a general contractor who is no longer in business responsible for doing all the repairs in a home up to one year after construction, if he has agreed to do so by signing a contract?
In a case like this, you do have the right of filing a case against a general contractor in small claims court if he or she does not agree to abide by the construction agreement, especially if there is an agreement and the person has signed on that agreement stating that he or she is responsible to do all the repairs of the house up to one year after construction. Generally, you would find that once you file a claim against the contractors and they are served papers to appear in the court, they would prefer resolving the issue outside the court. This usually happens if you have an attorney representing your case.

It is very essential for very owner to understand the importance of a construction contract. Although, there are laws for the protection of parties, but the implications of those laws may vary from location to location and form case to case. If you need any clarification about your particular situation on this subject, you may wish to ask a real estate lawyer for legal insight based on an expert evaluation of your circumstances.