No. SB 944
Filed under Legal.
Causes of Action Based on Improvements to Real Property; Revising the time in which an action founded on the design, planning, or construction of an improvement to real property shall be commenced; revising the date on which the statute of limitations period for such action begins; revising the latest date by which an action shall be commenced, etc.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDA lawsuit over a defect in the design, planning, or construction of a building must start within 4 years, and never more than 7, of a trigger date. That date is currently one project-wide event.
This bill lets the clock start instead from the date a specific architect, engineer, surveyor, or contractor's own contract with their employer ends early, if that professional abandoned the work or was terminated.
It also defines, for the first time, what counts as 'completion' for a road or bridge project 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.