22BUILDERS' DIGEST| OCTOBER-NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2010IT'S THE LAWBuilders and remodelers will need to updatetheir contracts to comply with a new lawwhich goes into effect January 1, 2011.Builders and remodelers, under the new law,must provide prospective customers with writ-ten performance guidelines before they enterinto a contract with the customer. Accordingto the new law, the written performance guide-lines are for those services to be performed bythe builder or remodeler. The performanceguidelines must be included in the contract, orincorporated into the contract by reference.Copies of the performance guidelines must beprovided, free of charge, to the customer. These performance guidelines become partof the contract with your customer and areenforceable like any other contractual obliga-tion. Therefore, it is important to know whatis in - and be prepared to stand by - the per-formance guidelines which you include intoyour contract. Ideally, these performanceguidelines will set the standard for minimumperformance by BATC members on new andremodeled homes. BATC does have a set ofperformance guidelines available to its mem-bers. However, there is no requirement in thelaw that you adopt a specific set of perform-ance standards.The new law also requires builders andremodelers to convey, in writing, to the cus-tomer the statutory new home warranties andexclusions, a new right to inspect and offer torepair provision under the new law and a newhome warranty dispute resolution processwhich will be conducted through theDepartment of Labor and Industry ("DOLI").These requirements will also need to beaddressed in all contracts entered into on orafter January 1, 2011. The new right to inspect and offer to repairlaw is similar to the existing law but clarifiesthat an owner is required to allow an inspec-tion so that the builder or remodeler can pre-pare an offer to repair within thirty (30) daysof receiving written notice of a warranty claim.The new law also requires that any damagecaused as a result of the inspection be prompt-ly repaired by the inspecting party and theproperty has tobe restored toits pre-inspect-ed condition.The newhome warrantydispute resolution process will be conductedthrough DOLI. Under this new system, DOLIwill keep a roster of persons willing to serve asqualified neutrals to resolve warranty disputes.DOLI will charge a $25.00 administrative feeand, unless otherwise agreed, the parties willsplit the administrative fee and the fee for thequalified neutral. The parties have the optionof designating a different alternative disputeresolution process and, if they do so, theymust provide DOLI with written notice and adescription of the selected process.This is only a brief summary of the changesaffecting construction and remodeling con-tracts. There are other changes brought aboutby the new law. For a complete summary, seewww.felhaber.com.New Law Requires Contract RevisionsBYTIMOTHYJ. HASSETT//Felhaber, Larson, Fenlon & Vogt,P.A., //www.felhaber.comThe Parade of HomesSM(POH) is done, thebig crowds are gone, all your leads you gener-ated during the event are ready to be turnedinto Purchase Orders and we will all be busyover the remaining Fall months and into thewarm, snowy winter months...Right?Well if you take the free tools offered to youby our friendly BATC staff that give you allkind of exposure to the clients before, duringand after the POH, then you should be sellinghomes like hotcakes! And then there is the BATC Gala Event inOctober. A Saturday night so you can let yourhair down or up as in my case, dance and net-work the night away with all the "who's who"of the greatest Association in the multi-statearea. We will have the famous Reggie AwardsSM,the Trillium AwardsSM, the Bob Hanson Awards,Sales & Marketing Awards and Spike of theYear, along few other surprises that you willjust have to get signed up to see. Don't miss it!I hope there are still some seats available whenthis publication is out...Save the date, October23, 2010 in St.Paul at the Crowne Plaza.Get involved with the Sales and MarketingCouncil and also the Awards and RecognitionCommittee... and we could also use manymore people to join the various other commit-tees at BATC.After all, thebest marketingyou can do ismarket yourselfand your com-pany by beinginvolved in thevery industry that supports you!See you at ALL the future BATC events!Marketing after the Parade ofHomesSM? How? Why?BYDEE-JAY, JONCOTY//Arrow Building Center//612-369-2574//jcoty@abc-clc.comWIIFM