Austin Construction And Real Estate Law Blog

Trees are among the more majestic parts of nature. Providing shade and beauty, trees are often an integral part of landscaping, on both commercial property and private residences. Austin and other areas of Texas continue to debate ordinances protecting trees. Property owners who are unfamiliar with the tree regulations may find themselves in trouble with local officials who work to protect trees of certain sizes and species.

However, what happens when a neighbor's tree is a danger or nuisance to you and your property? You may have repeatedly asked your neighbor to prune or even remove a troublesome tree, but your neighbor has not complied. Regardless of tree protection ordinances, you do have certain rights when your neighbor's tree causes or threatens to cause damage to your property.

You take pride in your work, and that includes completing jobs on time and within budget as often as possible. Your construction company builds homes where people will raise their families, celebrate victories and come together to comfort one another. Homes are among the most expensive investments people can make, and they understandably want the job done right.

When your company faces accusations of construction defects, you certainly want to defend your reputation. Construction defects encompass a wide variety of problems from various stages during the project. If you are dealing with a homeowner's claims that your company did poor work, you will want to seek legal assistance from someone who is knowledgeable in construction law and defects.

Perhaps you are finally doing what you always dreamed of: running your own construction business here in Texas. As a general contractor, you spend a significant amount of time working with an owner to determine exactly what he or she expects and figuring out how to make it happen.

Once you feel as though you have a handle on what the client expects of you on a project, you provide the owner with a cost. After further negotiating, if needed, you sign a contract. Hopefully, in the midst of all of the other agreed-upon terms, you included a detailed description of the scope of the work you will do and the cost for doing it.

As a contractor, subcontractor or other construction-connected business, your company may perform various construction-related duties for numerous people at any given time. Over the years, you may have perfected your scheduling, consultations, bids and other actions that could help you get a leg up when potentially competing with other companies for a particular job. Though most of your work goes through without much issue, you could still face risks when it comes time for payment.

You likely utilize invoices to allow the person or company for which you worked to know the cost of your services. While most people likely pay as expected, you may have run into an issue in which someone has not fulfilled an invoice. In some cases, simple requests could easily resolve this issue, but other cases may need more serious measures.