Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
exposing himself and his fi rm to unwanted conditions, moneywise or legal-wise, by
agreeing to unrealistic and unachievable contracts.
As the fi rst and perhaps the most obvious fact in a contract, a professional
primary target is to provide his design or construction related services in exchange
of money and therefore he should make sure that the proper provisions for adequate
and timely payments have been anticipated in the contract document. At the same
time make sure that enough clauses have been added to the contract that prevent
possible penalties for him if unexpected project delivery delays happen.
In addition there are some contract clauses that in most situations are very valu-
able, and would be very helpful for the professionals to have it in their contracts, and
in almost all cases could be to the benefi t of the professionals to even abandon the
contract, if the owner insists in removing them from the contract. Examples of these
clauses are limitation of liability (to the standard of care) which basically limits the
possible damages that one of contract signatories can ask from the other party (it is
important to know that limitation of liability does not limit claims of other parties
that have not signed the agreement), and ownership of instruments of service that
means the architect and engineers will keep the ownership of their documents
including design drawings and specifi cation that they will produce for the owner.
Therefore the design cannot be used for other projects in full or in part.
On the other hand there are a number of contract clauses that in most of the
situations would be very harmful for the professionals to have it in their contracts,
and in almost all cases could be so troublesome that it would be to the benefi t of
the professional to desert the contract if the owner insists in adding them to the
contract. Examples of these clauses are committing to any type of certifi cations or
guarantees.
The most comprehensive set of contract documents for architectural and engi-
neering projects are provided by American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the
Engineers Joint Contact Documents Committee (EJCDC). Usually these documents
give the best fair protection to professional against unexpected clauses in the con-
tract language. Therefore these are probably the best contract documents to be used,
at least from the professional stances.
A new threat for the design and construction professionals has recently arisen
from their commitment to design green buildings. Many times the owner is planning
on receiving tax incentives, or even fi nancial support from government, specifi c
individuals or groups to build the building with a specifi c high level of sustainable
building certifi cation. If these levels are not achieved for any reason (design and
construction professional defi ciency or other reasons), then there will be fi nancial
unfavorable condition for the owner and he most probably will question the profes-
sional team members and even will try to transfer this burden towards them. The
language of contract should only agree to employing reasonable effort for achieving
these goals, without committing to any sort of guarantee or warranty for qualifi ca-
tion to a specifi c level of sustainability scoring benchmark.
