General Contractor: find out the meaning of this figure and what he does.
What does General Contractor mean?
General Contractor (or GC or general contractor) refers to a person or company who optimizes certain construction processes.
The role of the General Contractor is to coordinate the other professionals involved in the construction or renovation process, with the aim of avoiding downtime and saving the resources of the final client.
Why
renovate by relying on a General Contractor in complex construction processes? A general contractor knows very well the construction processes and the
deadlines to be respected .
In fact, in addition to the technical deadlines, even the bureaucratic ones are not to be underestimated: failure to comply can lead to the stop of the works.
The peculiarities of the General Contractor
The companies and individuals who perform the functions of General Contractor possess certain characteristics.
Within the General Contractors there are
specific professionals who know their subject perfectly. Professionals are able to identify the criticalities of construction works and know how to overcome them quickly (and at the lowest possible cost).
The General Contractor manages, as the only point of contact, the complex process of carrying out a work: he has traditional skills, linked to the mere execution of the works, and multidisciplinary skills of a commercial or economic-financial nature.
For example, it is also not rare that within its organizational structure there is a branch that is interested in
receiving any loans or
bonuses .
The role and obligations of the figure of the general contractor
Before the existence of the GC for public works it was possible to resort only to tools that concerned only the construction phase of the work and not the previous phases. However, for complex public works this model was the source of numerous disadvantages: coordination difficulties, delays, higher costs, just to name a few.
Then the Legislator introduced the figure of the GC, that is a
global builder of the work , in such a way as to guarantee the planning and implementation of the work to the public client (“turnkey” formula).
The figure of the General Contractor was introduced in the legal system in the early 2000s (law 21/12/2001, n. 443, called the objective law, in order to streamline and accelerate the construction times of strategic public works). This GC discipline has merged into the Public Contracts Code.
The responsibilities of the General Contractor
A general contractor is responsible for how he will prepare the design and execution phase of the work, as defined in the
signed contract .
Contractual documents include budget agreements. conditions and specifications of the project (levels of specifications, documents, reports, calculations, time schedules).
A general contractor is responsible for providing the materials, workers, equipment and services necessary for the project.
In order to carry out its tasks, it is normal for the general contractor
to delegate part of the work to subcontractors .
The General Contractor in the public sector
Article 194 of Legislative Decree no. 50/2016 indicates the main obligations of the General Contractor:
- Project implementation and activities for approval;
- Acquisition of the sediment areas;
- Execution by means of the works;
- Work improvement;
- Identification of management methods;
- Indications of assignments, expropriations, supplies (to avoid mafia infiltration).
The General Contractor in the private sector
In the private sphere there is no real discipline.
The general contractor is often a builder of works who
can carry out the work by any means , that is, even by subcontracting it in whole or in part.
The General Contractor must render the services for the construction of the work to its client.
General Contractor: Ecobonus and Superbonus 110%
It is no secret that the majority of people who decide to access the
Superbonus 110% do so only because the intervention is supported by state incentives.
The series of steps envisaged by the legislation is complex and involves the work of professionals not usually involved in the intervention on the building.
Not only those subjects who, like the accountant or the technician, have a role in the development of the documentation. Also involved are subjects who have intuited other business opportunities (such as the assignment of the tax credit).
Is the General Contractor a guarantee for the eco-bonus?
The General Contractor has many possibilities in the current market: clients ask for a guarantee: in a new and complex situation such as this one can only be achieved with a high level of organization and coordination.
Since the issue of the first decree on the subject, the effort of means and resources of the General Contractors aimed at offering a quality service has been intense. The process is still in the process of becoming.
