No. HB 705
Filed under Legal.
Causes of Action Based on Improvements to Real Property; Revises time in which action founded on design, planning, or construction of improvement to real property shall be commenced; revises date on which statute of limitations period for such action begins; revises latest date by which action shall be commenced.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDConstruction-defect lawsuits must start within 4 years, and no later than 7, of a trigger date. That date used to be one project-wide event; now it can be an individual professional's own contract end.
If an architect, engineer, surveyor, or contractor is fired or quits a project early, the clock on suing that specific party can start running from that exit date, not from the building's eventual completion.
The bill also spells out, for the first time, what 'completion' means for road and bridge projects built under chapters 334-349: the date of final acceptance under a separate transportation statute.
A separate new definition sets a contractor's own 'completion of the contract' as the later of finishing the work or the date final payment comes due, regardless of when payment actually arrives.
AIThe 4-year clock for suing over a construction defect can now start from the date a specific architect, engineer, surveyor, or contractor's own contract with their employer ends, instead of only from the project's completion.
AIThis early-exit trigger is limited to the specific architect, engineer, surveyor, or contractor who abandoned the work or whose own contract was terminated; it does not move up the clock for other parties still on the project.
AIThe absolute 7-year deadline to sue, which applies even to a defect nobody could have discovered sooner, is recalculated using the same set of dates, including a professional's own early contract termination, rather than only project completion or abandonment.
AIFor projects built under the state's transportation statutes, 'completion of the improvement' is now the date of final acceptance defined in a separate transportation statute, giving those projects a specific completion trigger they lacked before.
AIWhen none of the other triggers apply, a professional's own contract is deemed complete on whichever is later: the date all contracted services were finished, or the date final payment on those services became due.