Guide to Using the RIBA Professional Services Contracts 2018 - Other - Page 32
Contract terms
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The Architect/Consultant will use the information provided to initially prepare a
fee proposal and once this has been accepted the formal PSC can be drafted for
signature.
Key watchpoints
• Know the difference between a business client and a consumer client.
• Be aware of consumer protection laws and likely unfair contract terms.
• Limit work in the ‘cooling-off’ period on consumer contracts to minimise loss if
the client won’t pay for work done.
• Check out the client before you agree to undertake the works.
• If undertaking the Principal Designer role on a commercial project, use a
separate and distinct PSC.
• Ensure that you do not take on the role of Principal Designer on a domestic
project inadvertently. Agree whether you take on the client duties in writing.
4.2 Architect/Consultant details
This section covers matters the Architect/Consultant needs to consider when
setting up the appointment relating to their obligations and authority relating to the
performance of the Services, including responsibilities to other Consultants.
Duty of care
Services and obligations are to be performed with ‘reasonable skill, care and
diligence in accordance with the normal standards of the Architect/Consultant’s
profession’, but it should be noted that this is not necessarily the standard that
applies to other obligations, such as the strict obligation to maintain professional
indemnity insurance.
Be very wary if modifications to the duty of care are proposed. Changes to the duty
of care (such as fitness for purpose) alter the professional obligations, and may not
be covered by standard professional indemnity policies.
An Architect/Consultant’s duties to its Client for a project are those as defined in the
project-specific appointment. There is, however, a commonly held misconception
that they have wider duties such as a duty to coordinate all aspects of a project
irrespective of the limits of that coordination role defined in its appointment. That is not
correct. The Architect/Consultant is only obliged to perform the duties it has agreed
to perform, for the agreed fee, as set out in the appointment document. It is only in
circumstances where the appointment is insufficiently clear as to those duties that the
Courts will look to imply further duties. For that reason, it is crucial that the Architect/
Consultant’s duties are fully defined in its appointment, without vagueness and
ambiguity. If an architect elects to perform a role that is beyond those duties set out in
its appointment, and irrespective of whether it is paid, it runs a high risk of being held
responsible for them because it will have assumed liability through its own actions.
Professional Services Regulations
There are two important influences to be considered when preparing an appointment
for professional services:
• The standards laid down in the Code of Conduct of the provider’s professional
registration body
• The obligations set out in the Provision of Services Regulations 2009, which
require ‘service providers’ such as Architects and Consultants to make
available to ‘service recipients’, i.e. Clients and potential Clients, information
about the provider’s business and the handling of complaints. Guidance
on the Regulations is available at http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.
uk/20091109114924/http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file53100.pdf
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