Terms Used In Tennessee Code > Title 66 > Chapter 36 - Construction Defects

• Action: means any civil action or binding dispute resolution proceeding for damages or indemnity asserting a claim for damage to or loss of commercial property caused by an alleged construction defect, but does not include any civil action or arbitration proceeding asserting a claim for alleged personal injuries arising out of an alleged construction defect. See Tennessee Code 66-36-101
• Claimant: means an owner, including a subsequent purchaser, tenant, or association, who asserts a claim against a prime contractor, remote contractor, or design professional concerning a construction defect. See Tennessee Code 66-36-101
• Commercial property: means all property that is not residential property. See Tennessee Code 66-36-101
• Construction defect: means a deficiency in, or a deficiency arising out of, the design, specifications, surveying, planning, supervision, observation of construction, or construction or remodeling of an improvement resulting from:
  (A) Defective material, products, or components used in the construction or remodeling. See Tennessee Code 66-36-101
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Design professional: means a person licensed in this state as an architect, interior designer, landscape architect, engineer, or surveyor, regardless of whether the person is a prime contractor or remote contractor. See Tennessee Code 66-36-101
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Lottery: means the selling of anything of value for chances on a prize or stake. See Tennessee Code 39-17-501
• Notice of claim: means a written notice sent by a claimant to the last known address of a prime contractor, remote contractor, or design professional against whom the claimant asserts a construction defect that describes the claim in reasonable detail sufficient to determine the general nature of the defect, including a general description of the type and location of the construction that the claimant alleges to be defective and any damages claimed to have been caused by the defect. See Tennessee Code 66-36-101
• Person: includes the singular and the plural and means and includes any individual, firm, partnership, copartnership, association, corporation, governmental subdivision or agency, or other organization or other legal entity, or any agent or servant thereof. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
• Residential property: means property upon which a dwelling or improvement is constructed or to be constructed consisting of one (1) dwelling unit intended as a residence of a person or family. See Tennessee Code 66-36-101
• Service: means personal service or delivery by certified mail to the last known address of the addressee, or as otherwise allowed by contract. See Tennessee Code 66-36-101
• Services: includes labor, skill, professional service, transportation, telephone, mail, gas, electricity, steam, water, cable television, entertainment subscription service or other public services, accommodations in hotels, restaurants or elsewhere, admissions to exhibitions, use of vehicles or other movable property, and any other activity or product considered in the ordinary course of business to be a service, regardless of whether it is listed in this subdivision (a)(38) or a specific statute exists covering the same or similar conduct. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Statute of limitations: A law that sets the time within which parties must take action to enforce their rights.
• written: includes printing, typewriting, engraving, lithography, and any other mode of representing words and letters. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105