The Negligent Architect

Date: December 2007

We acted for clients who were both busy, professional people. They instructed an architect to design an extension to their house and to deal with the obtaining of quotes from builders and to supervise the building work once it started.

A builder was selected from a number who had been asked to quote for the work and a start date and three-month building contract was agreed. The architect's duties under the contract were to visit the site at regular intervals, to inspect progress and the quality of the builder's work and to ensure the work was carried out in accordance with the building contract. Stage payments had been agreed with the builder so when the builder submitted his interim accounts, the architect was to check that work to that value had been carried out and then issue a certificate for payment.

When the time came to "knock through" the dividing wall between the house and the new extension, our clients arranged to be on holiday to avoid the noise and dust arising from this operation. Before leaving for holiday they paid a further interim payment to the builder which had been certified by the architect. The architect also agreed to make inspections in their absence and to be present when the "knocking through" took place.

On their return from holiday they found the house full of rubble and dust and a tarpaulin over the roof which should have been completed. The local Council was called in to check the building and it was found to be unsafe and structurally unsound. The builder had "knocked through" but had never returned to site having got into financial difficulties.

The builder was not worth suing as he had no money but the architect was in breach of his contract as he had failed to supervise the building work properly. He had not inspected for some weeks before the "knocking through" took place and had over certified the interim payments with the result that the builder had been paid £10,000 more than he was entitled to. The architect had also not been on site to oversee the work whilst the clients were away. On previous inspections the architect had approved work which the building surveyor who we instructed considered to be defective, the cost of which was estimated at £6,000 to put right. The clients were faced with finding another builder to make the house safe and to finish the work.

A letter of claim was put to the architects who referred matters to their insurance company and they instructed loss adjusters to negotiate the claim. An initial offer of £12,000 was made but after threatening proceedings the claim was settled at £20,000 including costs. Whilst the clients did not recover the full cost of the work to repair and finish the house, the majority of those costs were recovered and the cost and delay of court proceedings was avoided.

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