@coachkatebarbaria
@coachchrishopstock
Per C401, section 1.4, ‘The Architect shall not be responsible for the acts or omissions of the consultant.’.So shouldn’t the electrical engineer be responsible for the delay in schedule?
Hi @ngolban - great question and there’s an important distinction here!
C401, section 1.4 is talking about actual errors or omissions made by the consultant - that would apply if the consultant had designed part of the building against code and it resulted in a change order later, for example.
The question, however, is asking about responsibility for a delay in the project schedule because of an oversight by the architect’s consultant. The architect is responsible for the project schedule during the design phases, including situations like this where the consultant is really the cause of the issue.
Put yourself in the owner’s shoes for a second and let’s change the example a bit. Let’s say you hire someone to do something for you by a specific date - maybe design a website or something. If that person subcontracts out part of the work to someone else, and that subcontractor causes a delay, are you going to accept the person you hired blaming this unknown subcontractor, who you have no relationship with? Probably not; you’re going to tell the person you hired that they agreed to a specific schedule and that this is their problem to remedy.
Your example makes sense. Thank you!
hello! My follow up question to that would be, in what cases does that provision apply then? The consultant made the error / omission, but the architect isn’t protected in this case? If the architect is still responsible for the consequences of consultant errors and omissions then what are they not responsible for; what would that provision even be protecting against?
Thanks for the thoughtful follow-up, @zblizard. The key distinction is between contractual responsibility to the owner and professional liability between the architect and consultant. The architect remains responsible to the owner for coordinating the consultant’s work and meeting the project’s contractual obligations, such as the design schedule. However, C401 protects the architect by allowing them to seek recovery from the consultant when the consultant’s own negligent errors or omissions cause damages. In other words, the architect may still need to address the issue with the owner, but the consultant can remain liable to the architect for the consequences of their own professional negligence.
Hope this helps!
Kiara Galicinao, AIA, NCARB
Product Coordinator
Black Spectacles