The Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), through a working group of the AGC Contract Documents Forum, has just released comments to the ConsensusDocs 750 Standard Agreement Between the Constructor and Subcontractor. These comments follow on to comments AGC adopted in January of this year related to the ConsensusDocs 200 prime agreement that includes general terms and conditions. General contractors will want to consider these comments in tailoring standard ConsensusDocs contract document language for their own project-specific purposes. ConsensusDocs publishes contractual best practices that are fair to all parties and are created by a coalition of over 40 organizations. AGC’s comments provide a general contractor-specific perspective.
While the AGC comments are organized by and reference the standard ConsensusDocs 750 subcontract, these AGC comments will deepen the understanding of fundamental subcontracting issues. These issues – including, for example, delays, damages, change order, and payment provisions -- are in most construction subcontracts, including the American Institute of Architects (AIA) A401 Standard Subcontract (2017), as well as “original” or “bespoke” contracts.
The AGC comments to ConsensusDocs standard language concentrate on critical risk allocation issues and project-specific concerns for AGC members. A prominent example is the “pay-when-paid” language in the ConsensusDocs 750. These new AGC-member-only comments provide alternative language that offers an option for payment to become “pay-if-paid.” AGC does not advocate for pay-if-paid language but believes that such language is an option to consider for its members.
AGC, one of the founding organizations of the ConsensusDocs Coalition, has been the most active organization in providing Guidebook comments. This AGC members-only resource requires members to log onto the AGC contract documents website to obtain access at www.agc.org/contract. Any questions about the document may be directed to AGC’s Senior Counsel on Construction Law, Brian Perlberg, at brian.perlberg@agc.org.
Additional Resources
- AGC Construction Law and Contracts page is here.
- AGC Guidebook Commentary to ConsensusDocs is here.
- Join the AGC Contract Documents Forum by going to: https://www.agc.org/member-benefits/agc-Forums and selecting the “Contract Documents Forum.”