TL;DR
Liquidated damages are a preset dollar amount, written into a construction contract, that the contractor owes for each day the project finishes after the agreed completion date. The figure must be a reasonable estimate of the owner's actual loss — lodging, storage, lost rent — because courts strike down amounts that function as a penalty.
What it means
Liquidated damages are a preset dollar amount, written into a construction contract, that the contractor owes for each day the project finishes after the agreed completion date. The figure must be a reasonable estimate of the owner's actual loss — lodging, storage, lost rent — because courts strike down amounts that function as a penalty. The clause works both ways: it caps the contractor's delay exposure while sparing the owner from proving damages item by item.
Where it sits in the glossary
Liquidated damages is part of the Legal group inside the ProFix Directory glossary. Browse every term in this category from the glossary index.
Why Ohio homeowners should know it
This is a term Ohio homeowners encounter when reading contractor quotes, hiring paperwork, or inspection reports. Understanding it well enough to ask one good follow-up question is usually all the protection a homeowner needs.
ProFix Directory keeps definitions short on the index page and saves the longer context — Ohio-specific rules, where the term comes from, and which ProFix tools touch it — for these per-term pages so the term is easy to cite and easy to share.
ProFix tools that touch this term
See also
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