The Importance of Effective Communication during a Construction Defect Claim By Ritchie Lipson, Esq.
Effective communication within a homeowners’ association is always important. Once an association brings a construction defect action against the community’s builder, communication and cooperation among the board, community association manager, and the association’s construction defect attorney become essential. With the outbreak of COVID-19, how we communicate and do business in the future, including within the context of construction defect claims, will most likely remain permanently changed. A construction defect action by a homeowners’ association usually begins with a Notice of Commencement of Legal Proceedings under the Calderon Act (Civil Code § 6000 et seq.) by the association to the builder, which concurrently satisfies the statutory requirement for a Notice of the Claim pursuant to Senate Bill 800. However, before the association’s attorney may prepare such notice, the attorney must investigate the defects in the community and discuss the identified defects with the board and the community manager. This conversation is the key to defining the scope of the action desired by the association. Sometimes, associations are concerned only about a few key issues. Other times, the association has a plethora of concerns about the construction of its community and wish to pursue all such issues. The attorney, board members, and manager should discuss these issues and the scope of its claim before the attorney prepares and serves the requisite notice on the builder. After the notice is served, California law provides for certain statutory time frames in which the builder can investigate the claimed defects, provide construction documents to the association, perhaps perform
12 The Law Journal Summer 2021 | cacm.org
