The cooperatively produced standard-form contracts written mainly by owners and contractors under the ConsensusDOCS banner contain new payment security for subcontractors among other terms. With all of the 70-plus forms due to be released Sept. 28, the effort represents three years of work by 23 industry associations and an attempt to speed up contract negotiations and build trouble-free projects by starting from mutually agreed ideas of what is fair.
ConsensusDOCS developed agreements “in the best interest of the project” and “owner satisfaction,” says Stephen E. Sandherr, CEO of the Associated General Contractors of America. “Each of us had an equal voice at the table,” says E. Collette Nelson, executive vice president of the American Subcontractors Association.