An assignment of building warranties, on its proper construction, includes accrued causes of action for past breaches unless expressly excluded; a construction excluding the right to sue for past uncompensated breaches produces an uncommercial result. An assignee of contractual warranties steps into the shoes of the assignor and may recover damages regardless of knowledge of defects. The Allianz v Waterbrook principle that a successor in title with full knowledge of defects suffers no loss requires knowledge of both the existence and significance of defects, and does not extend to constructive knowledge from failure to investigate. Where building work is defectively designed as a whole, the owner may recover the cost of full replacement even though not all components have yet failed, and no betterment deduction is warranted where the replacement design is necessitated by the breach and the need to maintain operations.
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