This is just a warning to all boards trying to save money. Before I lived in Fishermans Wharf Cooperative of West Babylon, NY the board at the time was having one of our bulkheads on our lake replaced. They saved about $500 at the time writing the contract themselves. The bulkhead collapsed in 2006 6 months after construction. The contractor advised he would pay to fix, but not pay our legal fees. The Board at that time tried to save $500 and write the contract themselves. Well, in NYS the other party in a lawsuit is not responsible for legal fees of the other party unless it is contract and our contract was vague on that point. Its now 5 years later and we are still litigating. The court made a motion on the contract this week and stated they will be responsible for legal fees if we win. Our lawyer thinks they will now settle, but if it was written better, it would have been settled in 2006.

My warning is to always have a lawyer write your contracts for large capital improvement projects.