The Parkers borrowed money from Columbia Bank to build a custom home but the project ran into problems. They sued the bank for fraud and breach of contract, claiming the bank should have monitored the construction and protected their interests. The Maryland court dismissed their case, ruling that the bank made only opinions (not false facts) and had no contractual duty to inspect the work or manage the loan balance. This means lenders are not responsible for overseeing construction quality or protecting borrowers from builder problems.
Banks have no automatic duty to inspect construction work or monitor whether a builder is doing quality work—don't expect the lender to catch problems
Statements from builders about their experience and competence are usually treated as opinions, not facts, so they're harder to sue over as fraud
Get everything in writing in your construction contract and loan agreement; if a duty isn't spelled out in the contract, courts won't assume it exists