Why wouldn't you? Is this the largest financial commitment you've ever made? Is this the most complicated deal to which you are committed (other than marriage!)? I am amazed at the number of people who don't hire lawyers when they sign complex, financial commitments, but then when things go awry, rush to find one. Everyone else in this transaction has a lawyer protecting his interests. I'd bet that your builder had his lawyer draft the contract. And you know that the bank providing the funds has lawyers on staff protecting their money. So, who's looking out for you.

BTW, your lawyer should be familiar with construction contracts and deal with consumer construction issues often. Most real estate lawyers do not have experience with construction loans and contracts. So, YES!

For me if it costs more than $500, I'm unfamiliar with the documents and the situation could be a problem in the future I get legal advice.

DEFINITELY. Construction law is always complex and, even if your builder is the most honest company in the world, his contract is written to protect him in case of problems. So you need to understand what is in the contract and if something is bothering.

So, hire a lawyer, ask him to review the contract, to explain you what your obligations and protections and the contractor's ones, and what is problematic compared to a standard contract (if any).

If you' re not knowledgeable in construction law, ..., the first part is important too. Reading Houzz, I have seen many situations where I would have been surprised by what the law implied.

Ditto what CPARTIST said. We both went through similar experiences. (Mine still aren't resolved...)

We had great lawyers and needed them. Most people do!

We had a construction lawyer review our contract. We were referred by our real estate attorney. The lawyer removed some clauses and changed the wording on a few things. I thought the builder might balk, but he didn’t have a problem with it.

bytheriverbank and capartist do you mind sharing your lawyer's information please .

Yes, have a lawyer review the contract. Literally nobody has ever said they wish they *didn't* get a lawyer review. You don't need the top dog for this.

anyone that can a construction lawyer's contact please feel free to add it

@Natasha Thomas, lawyers are licensed by state. You can share your town and state and you might get lucky and get a referral, but just throwing out names isn't going to help you.

My lawyer won't help you unless you are building in SW FL in my town.

Pennsylvania

What are you building, who will design it and what is the contractor's role in the project?

Most small project construction contracts are pretty strightforward but one of the reasons to hire a lawyer is to use standard terms and language that hold more weight in a dispute. Also, you will have someone to turn to if anything goes wrong.

I got tricked by a spam post again.

Of course, you should, there are a lot of situations when people can fool you, and you can lose not just money, but also important things for yourself. A person that already knows that you don't have a lawyer will search for ways to fool you and get all your money.

I completely disagree with this comment. Good contracts don't build good homes and a contract never turned a bad actor into a good one. It is great to have an attorney look over your contract so that you fully understand it, however, if you believe the contract is a significant guard against scams and fraud, you are sorely mistaken. In the end, a great builder with a bad contract is still going to build a better home than a bad builder with a great contract.

Your best bet, is to find a great builder who is interested in your project and see if you can work with his contract. It is great to have an attorney find the risks so you fully understand them and see if you can live with, or mitigate, those risks. If you ever find yourself in a situation where you believe the contract is the only thing that makes the builder trustworthy, then find a different builder.

Think of the contract as a backstop if things go south… hopefully you’ll be able to maintain a reasonable good relationship with your GC. IMHO, the best way to find a good GC is to interview clients of the GC and interview some of the subcontractors who perform work at a level comensurate with the build quality you are looking for. The best subs work for the best builders.

"The lawyer's work with the client usually follows the standard scheme."

Very enlightening. Wonder how long before Kermit reappears to change his comment to spam..........................

If anyone is interested, for a house designed and constructed by a home builder, I recommend the Owner-Contractor agreement form AIA 112 - Standard Form of Agreement Between Owner and Home Builder for Design and Construction of a Single Family Home.

I have never seen a thread along the lines of "I wish I did NOT get a lawyer to review my contract".

I always seek the help of lawyers to make sure I'm making informed decisions. They have the expertise to identify any potential pitfalls or legal issues that we might miss as laypeople.

If you are using a contract written by a builder or a design-builder you will be at a disadvantage and a lawyer is essential.

But, if you are bidding the project and can include a contract form in the bid documents and you don't have an architect to help with the contract, It can be difficult to find a lawyer familiar with single family construction contracts and hiring a lawyer to write one can be unnecessarily expensive and he/she is likely to follow the AIA format anyway so I recommend printing an AIA "sample" form, filling it out and taking it to a lawyer. If he/she doesn't have a subscription to the AIA forms you can buy an editable copy for $100.

If you are not using an architect, you you can cross out, delete or modify any reference to an architect.

Last year I recommended an AIA single family house contract form for when the designer is a home builder. Here are all of AIA single family contract forms:

https://aiacontracts.com/search/all/all?curpage=1&utm_term=&utm_campaign=Surety%20-%20Performance%20Max&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&hsa_acc=8579796829&hsa_cam=20190385363&hsa_grp=&hsa_ad=&hsa_src=x&hsa_tgt=&hsa_kw=&hsa_mt=&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ver=3&gclid=CjwKCAjwkeqkBhAnEiwA5U-uM5YvJKBdlaLvfGZR8_W6qqq451ZXNOlr12Feimn1A9aVElCaMWjPNhoCBQ4QAvD_BwE

Here is a sample sheet.

https://aiacontracts.com/search/all/all?curpage=1&utm_term=&utm_campaign=Surety%20-%20Performance%20Max&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&hsa_acc=8579796829&hsa_cam=20190385363&hsa_grp=&hsa_ad=&hsa_src=x&hsa_tgt=&hsa_kw=&hsa_mt=&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ver=3&gclid=CjwKCAjwkeqkBhAnEiwA5U-uM5YvJKBdlaLvfGZR8_W6qqq451ZXNOlr12Feimn1A9aVElCaMWjPNhoCBQ4QAvD_BwE

Engaging a lawyer can also help you negotiate more favorable terms in the contract, potentially saving you money or protecting your interests in the long run.