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PROJECT MANAGEMENT

What are my designer’s legal responsibilities?

OAKMASTERS

Our architect failed to identify that the presence of three trees near to our planned garage was serious enough to threaten its completion. Our contractor had just started to dig the foundations when building control stopped them and demanded a full engineer’s report (priced at £600). Their specifications will add at least £6,000 to our construction costs. What duty of care did the architects have to identify the likely impact in advance of the build?

The issue of liability comes down to the contract you have with the practice. The final decision on foundation requirements falls to building control (BC), not your architects, so it depends on whether they were contracted to check this. My advice is always to speak to BC first about likely foundation specifications. If they can’t give a precise answer, a soil survey is definitely going to be needed to identify conditions and determine a suitable solution for groundworks and foundations. It’s additional expense, but it flags up the costs you’re likely to face so you can budget for them.

If there are mature trees close to any structure, the likelihood of needing engineered foundations increases greatly − and this really should have been on someone’s radar. If the architects were contracted just for the design drawing aspects, they may maintain that this was not their remit. If they have full project management responsibility and were dealing with planning and BC approval, then it could be argued that they should have spotted this and pointed out the need for further investigation.