Blogs & Resources

Occasionally a borrower’s counsel or counsel for an institution that has served as a lending partner in some capacity will get crafty in trying to shift the blame for bad business transactions to the originating and lead lending institution by asserting claims against the original lender for not performing like a reasonable and prudent bank can be expected to perform in the administration of a loan. The claims come in many forms, but they are all predicated on the same fundamental premise: if the bank had performed a better/reasonable underwriting or processing of the original loan, then the losses that ultimately occurred would have been prevented. Fortunately for banks, these types of claims are unsustainable in Florida law. There is no tort duty for banks to process loans competently. See Silver v. Countrywide Home Loans, Inc., 760 F. Supp. 2d 1330, 1339 (S.D. Fla. 2011).

Warranties are a valuable part of a construction contract. A multi-year warranty is more valuable than a 1-year warranty. A contractor’s offer to provide a multi-year warranty may induce an owner to select that contractor and enter into the contract. Often, multi-year warranties are included in the written contract, or separate written warranty policies are provided at the end of the project. However, not all construction contracts are written, and contractors don’t always provide a written policy at the end of a project. This raises the question: are oral multi-year warranties enforceable? They may not be. The Statute of Frauds may bar their enforcement.