is " warranty" appropriate to use for standard of care?
contract said architect shall perform standard of care ,if it was revised to " warranty " should it be crossed ?
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Hi @xurubi thatâs a great question! Letâs see if one of our expert architects can help with this! @coachdarionziegler do you mind jumping in?
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Hi @xurubi ,
Warranties and the Standard of Care are similar concepts, but different.
You can think of the standard of care as the minimum requirements an architect must meet to have performed their job at an acceptable level. It is the standard against which an architect is judged to determine if they were negligent. If the architect has not met the standard of care they may be liable for damages.
When I took my professional practice class in college our instructor was very specific about this term and made us learn his definition - âThe standard of care is ordinaryâ. This means that as an architect you must provide services at a similar level to other, similar architects in a similar area for projects of a similar type, scale, and scope.
You can read some of the articles the AIA has put out about standard of care at the links below:
You can also read more about the standard of care in the AHPP page 169-171.
As an architect, you do not provide any warranties.
An architect should never sign any agreement that says the architect guarantees or warranties any performance of services. Agreeing to any performance beyond the standard of care will open the architect up to liability, which should always be avoided. Read page 994 of the AHPP for more on this.
Warranties are something that products come with and manufacturers & installers provide. As well, you can read more about warranties the contractor is responsible for in A201 section 3.5.
Hope this helps!
-Darion
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thanks
i am only confused when reading AHPP as below
p994
"The only guarantee that the law typically requires,and that professional liability insurance policies cover, is a guarantee to perform to the standard of care.
"The words guarantee and warranty should either be stricken from the agreement,
or at least used properlyâfor example, âArchitect makes no guarantee of performance.â
so âguarantee to perform to the standard of careâ is right or be avoided
assume it still need to be avoided ?
Hi @xurubi ,
The AHPP is written by architects, and we have a habit of making things confusing 
The architect is to perform to the standard of care. They are agreeing to this, because if not, they may be liable for damages and considered negligent. So, they are in a sense âguaranteeingâ to this as they know that by accepting the job and failing to do so they may be held liable.
In general, the architect does not want to use the words âguaranteeâ or âwarrantyâ in their agreements because there can be legal ramifications of using these words which may open the architect up to liability. Even though the architect should be performing at the standard of care, the use of these words can land them in hot water.
Check out B101, article 2. This is how the standard AIA contract describes the architectâs standard of care.
Hope this helps!
-Darion
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Thank you so much - very helpful explanation
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Iâm glad you found it helpful!