Reduce risks when you use an official form of appointment
The findings of the ‘Working with Architects’ Clients Survey 2020’ show that clients rate architects highly for several value-adding benefits. The most notable of these related to areas of design such as helping clients to ‘realise their aspirations’, for which 78% ‘strongly agreed’ and ‘tended to agree’. 69% of respondents also cited ‘reducing risks’ as another significant factor.
As an architect, it might feel as though these two responsibilities are sometimes quite opposed—especially if you’ve got a client with all the enthusiasm of most self-builders or renovators right now: quite a lot. During the latter half of 2020, it was reported that UK homeowners had spent over £50 billion on renovation during lockdown, and this trend has shown no sign of subsiding. (1)
This leaves you, the architect, standing in the middle, laden with the task of enabling your client to realise their every home-building or renovating dream, whilst making sure it doesn’t turn into a nightmare for both parties.
An official contract is essential to this journey. Not having a form of appointment or relying on poorly drafted terms are some of the main causes of dispute between a client and an architect. Disputes over time spent and money spent are some of the most common, usually owing to an unclear boundary of where the architect’s responsibility ends. Projects overrunning due to extras being added that require additional work, and therefore an additional fee that might not have been made clear in the beginning, increase the risk of work stopping and working relationships crumbling.
The RIBA Professional Services Contracts have been developed to ensure that architects comply with both the RIBA and ARB Codes, so that your terms of appointment will always cover the key requirements—for happy clients and reduced risks.
These include clear definitions of your services and your client’s responsibilities, your fees and expenses, copyright license, liability and insurance, suspension or termination and dispute resolution. This ensures there are no nasty surprises at a later stage and creates a fair, balanced and transparent framework covering any possible future issues or problems.
It all feels like common sense, but there is ample evidence that some architects still operate without any written terms. Anecdotal evidence shows many are even reluctant to put ‘formal’ documents before their clients before work commences. A check undertaken by the RIBA Professional Standards team in 2018 found that 26% of the professional conduct cases raised related to allegations of insufficient or non-existent terms of appointment. Further to this, 25% of the hearings in these cases resulted in RIBA Members being sanctioned for breaches of the RIBA Code of Professional Conduct.
Adrian Dobson, Executive Director of Professional Services at RIBA says: “These contracts build upon a long-standing RIBA tradition of developing and publishing appointment contracts, creating a standard in the profession, and defining the parties’ obligation and rights. Written in straight forward language, they offer protection to both architects and their clients and clarify limits of liability.”
All RIBA Contracts are now available online through the RIBA Contracts Digital Tool. This tool is quick and straightforward to use and allows an architect to generate a digital contract with terms tailored to specific projects, for complete clarity between architect and client. It is stored online in a secure location and multiple copies can be printed for each party at no extra cost.
RIBA members can enjoy a discount of 50% on the purchase of digital contracts, which are usually priced at £30-36 per contract.
(1)Refurb Renovation News, Aug 2020: “UK Homeowners spend over fifty billion on renovation during lockdown as they prepare to stay home for the long run.”
