CONSENSUS DOCS Challenges AIA on "Who's in Charge"

Read this article on a new group challenging AIA's dominance on contract documents...

A new challenger to AIA documents

ConsensusDOCS, a new family of construction documents, puts the owner in charge of the project.

By TIM CALDERBANK, JOE STRAUS and JANET KIM LIN
Bullivant Houser Bailey

After an intensive three-year effort, a consortium of owners, contractors and trade groups joined together and have published what they consider to be contract documents based on best practices and proper risk allocation, for the benefit of the construction industry at large. The result is a new family of construction documents entitled ConsensusDOCS, where “DOCS” stands for designers, owners, contractors and sureties.

ConsensusDOCS is endorsed by 22 construction organizations — including the Associated General Contractors of America, Associated Builders and Contractors and National Electrical Contractors Association — that represent a wide selection of industry members, from developers to owners to general contractors to subcontractors.

Despite the wide consensus represented by these national trade organizations, proponents of the long-standing contract documents published by the American Institute of Architects argue that the oft-revised AIA documents are more than sufficient and there is no need for another family of construction documents. For the reasons below, we disagree with that conclusion.

The owner is in charge

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