Glossary

Generally speaking, a construction defect is any deficiency in the design or construction of a building or structure resulting from a failure to design or construct in a reasonably workmanlike manner and/or in accordance with a buyer's reasonable expectation.

Construction management (CM) encompasses a range professional advisory services to the owner of a construction project on virtually any aspect of the project, including financing, contract negotiations and awards, time/cost consequences of design and construction decisions, scheduling, purchase of critical and long-lead items, budgets, and monitoring design and construction teams.

Construction management (CM) at-risk is a form of CM in which the construction manager acts both as a consultant to the owner in the development and design phases and as the equivalent of a general contractor during the construction phase.

Construction management (CM) professional liability insurance covers numerous professional exposures created by the providing of CM services. At one time a speciality policy, this coverage is now included within most architects and engineers professional liabilty and contractors professional liability policies.

The Construction Risk and Insurance Specialist (CRIS ® ) certification demonstrates expertise in construction risk management and insurance. Its curriculum consists of a series of courses devoted to the insurance and risk management needs of construction projects and contractors.

Constructive discharge is an attempt by an employer to force an employee to resign (rather than terminate the employee) by making the employee's working conditions highly disagreeable.

Constructive notice is presumed knowledge of facts and circumstances by the party responsible to know or take notice of such facts and circumstances. Constructive notice is a legal fiction where a reasonably diligent person is assumed to have known about something even if they did not receive actual notice.

A property damage (PD) loss that is a "constructive total loss" is treated as a total loss because the cost of repairing the damaged property exceeds the value of the property.

A container ship carries its entire load in truck-size containers.

The contents rate is the property insurance rate on personal property, most of which is likely to be contained within a building.