RIA's New Glossary of Terms

Clear, concise communication relies on a common understanding of terms. Disagreement over word definitions in contracts, scopes of work, estimates, reports, and invoices leads to conflict that too often has to be resolved by legal proceedings.   Suppliers, insurance adjusters, consultants, clients, and contractors have, at times, spoken different languages. Similarly, regions of the country have adopted certain terms and definitions unfamiliar to industry participants in other areas. Today, our society is more litigious than ever and many restoration industry participants work coast-to-coast. Contractors, regardless of market, are learning new terms and different definitions for known terms. The importance of an accepted glossary of industry terminology has never been more important; because whenever two parties dispute the meaning of term, the one that has relied on an accepted standard definition has a far greater chance of prevailing.

RIA has developed a glossary of industry terms for purposes of establishing a common understanding of language to be used in contracts, scopes of work, estimates, reports, and invoices. The new interactive glossary of terms can be viewed by clicking here.

For a pdf version of the glossary, click here.