The U.S. EPA proposed a new rule under the Clean Water Act reversing the Trump Administration’s rule for water quality certifications under section 401 of the Act. Section 401 provides states and tribes with authority to protect waters within their jurisdiction from pollutant discharges originating from federally-licensed or -permitted projects ...
Arbitration provisions are becoming more common in construction contracts, but a recent court decision reveals that enforcing these provisions requires more than just placing them in a contract. Contractors, especially those seeking to arbitrate claims involving multiple property owners or an entire homeowner or condominium association, must sufficiently establish that enough of the property owners agreed to arbitrate their claims. Mattamy Florida LLC .v ...
Much recent attention has been on Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis’ signing of extensive property insurance law changes in Florida. But on May 26, the governor also signed Senate Bill 4. While SB 4 primarily deals with condominium inspections and safety, the bill also changes part of the state law that enacts and governs Florida’s Building Code and changes the amount of a roof that must be brought up to current codes in the event of damage and repair ...
New Florida Statute Changes Building Code Requirements for Roof Repairs In May, Florida’s legislature met for a special session to address issues with property insurance claims and rates within the state ...
The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) published exposure drafts of two International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) ...
A summary of the key takeaways from a recent webinar on reducing scope 3 waste-related emissions. Shoosmiths is delighted to be sponsoring United Nation Global Compact Network (UNGC) UK’s series of webinars on ‘Reducing Scope 3 Emissions’ ...
Following the launch of a real estate investment trust with buy-back condition (the “REIT buy-back”), which we extensively covered in our last article, “Overview of REITs with buy-back conditions: The new mechanisms to help real estate owners survive in the midst of Covid-19”, aiming to alleviate the woes that business operators, particularly the hospitality sector, have endured during the Covid-19 era, on May 10, 2022, according to information revealed by the Director of
Construction law is NOT boring, at least that’s what I tell my daughters. In these series of posts, I will explore some of the VERY interesting historical facts about construction law that can be used at your next motion hearing, family gathering, social event or fellow lawyer meeting. While these anecdotes may not keep your kids or significant others from rolling their eyes, hopefully they can provide a small respite from your (yes, I admit) sometimes boring life in construction law ...
Aaron Harlow and Ian Hardman examine the tough new measures that are being taken to force the real estate industry to pay to remove cladding - protecting leaseholders from costs. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) has requested that residential property developers fund and undertake all necessary remediation of buildings over 11m that they have had a role in developing. This includes buildings both 11-18m and 18m+ ...
Michael Bennett and Amber Wright explain the importance of reducing embodied carbon in construction - putting forward the case for legislative reform and how new technologies, methods and contracts are supporting the living sector’s move to net zero. To date much of the government’s focus to meet its net zero targets has been on creating more energy efficient homes and buildings ...
Charles Arrand considers the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, with a focus on both the potential business and human costs of failing to discharge obligations under the Order. Fire safety is regulated by the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (the Order), which applies to almost all buildings, places and structures other than individual private homes ...
What follows is a cautionary tale for anyone involved who fails to follow a natural disaster preparedness plan. Taking short cuts and failing to follow agreed upon emergency preparedness plans are a recipe for disaster. While the litigation we analyze in this article stems from bridge construction in Florida, the lessons learned from this real situation are applicable all across the country ...
Local authorities will be given rights to let vacant high street premises under new powers contained in the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill. Background The government wants to regenerate local high streets as part of its levelling up agenda. A key element of its proposals is to give local authorities the right to let vacant premises on their high streets following a rental auction process ...
A summary of the key takeaways from a recent webinar on reducing scope 3 transportation and distribution emissions. Shoosmiths is delighted to be sponsoring United Nation Global Compact Network (UNGC) UK’s series of webinars on ‘Reducing Scope 3 Emissions’ ...
While architects and engineers take responsibility for the safety of the buildings they design, they usually are not responsible for protecting the property or the people on-site during construction. If a finished building falls because of improper design, the architects and engineers who stamped the drawings will be the prime suspects for the failure ...
By: Gwenneth O’Hara, Nora Sheriff, Jonathan Kendrick, and Lillian Rafii After extensive collaboration with other state agencies and nearly a year’s worth of public workshops on scoping plan topics and modeling, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) released its Draft 2022 Scoping Plan Update (Draft Scoping Plan) on May 10, 2022 ...
On February 4, 2022, President Biden issued Executive Order 14063, which requires federal agencies engaging in “large scale” federal construction contracts to include in their solicitation and construction contracts a provision requiring the prime federal contractor (and their subcontractors) to negotiate project labor agreements (PLAs) with local unions as a condition of receiving the contract ...
INTRODUCTION Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) is fast becoming popular as a relatively easier method of resolving disputes across the world and intellectual property (“IP”) is not an exception. This is apparent from the rising number of disputes handled by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) Arbitration and Mediation Centre over the past few years, from 136 cases in 2017, to 155 in 2018, 178 in 2019 and 182 in 2020 ...
