{"id":3847,"date":"2014-08-12T06:22:58","date_gmt":"2014-08-12T12:22:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?p=3847"},"modified":"2014-08-05T13:23:38","modified_gmt":"2014-08-05T19:23:38","slug":"principal-architects-residential-projects-liable-construction-defects-outside-control-developers-owners-may-pay-price","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/principal-architects-residential-projects-liable-construction-defects-outside-control-developers-owners-may-pay-price\/","title":{"rendered":"Principal Architects on Residential Projects Liable for Construction Defects Outside Their Control; Developers and Owners May Pay the Price"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Meredith Jones-McKeown &#8211; July 16, 2014<\/p>\n<p>Beacon Residential Community Assoc. v. Skidmore, Owings &amp; Merrill, LLP\u00a0(Cal. Supreme Court., 07\/03\/2014, S208173)<\/p>\n<p>On July 3, 2014, the California Supreme Court decided the much watched case Beacon Residential Community Assoc. v. Skidmore, Owings &amp; Merrill, LLP.\u00a0 The court held that the \u201cprincipal architect\u201d \u201cowes a duty of care to future homeowners in the design of a residential building . . . even when they do not actually build the project or exercise control over construction.\u201d\u00a0 (Emph. added.)<\/p>\n<p>The case arose out of the construction of a residential building in San Francisco that was first rented for two years but was ultimately sold as condominiums.\u00a0 Following the sale, the Homeowners Association brought claims against the project\u2019s developer, contractor, and architect, claiming various construction defects including \u201csolar heat gain\u201d resulting from the defendants\u2019 approval of allegedly substandard windows and a building design that lacked adequate ventilation.\u00a0 The principal project architect, Skidmore Owings &amp; Merrill LLP, dba HKS Architects, Inc., argued that regardless of its input into the original design, that input consisted of recommendations only.\u00a0 It did not control the owner\u2019s decisions as to how to proceed with construction and therefore should not be held liable to third party homeowners for alleged defects resulting from those decisions.\u00a0 Although the trial court agreed, California\u2019s Supreme Court reversed, issuing a broad rule creating potentially extensive liability for architects who design residential projects.<\/p>\n<p>What This Means for Owners and Developers:\u00a0 In light of the ruling, developers and owners may have trouble hiring architects to design residential projects.\u00a0 Architects will likely become more concerned about whether their plans are built as designed, about documenting changes to the plans made by the owner, and more hesitant to make value engineering recommendations and give other input during the Construction Administration phase of the project.\u00a0 In short, it will be harder to get quality architects to work on residential projects, and more expensive and contractually difficult when it happens.<\/p>\n<p>What it Means for Architects:\u00a0 Homeowners associations will now argue that architects should have unfettered liability for all design defects in residential construction projects \u2013 even where the architects didn\u2019t make the ultimate decisions about how the project should be built.\u00a0 Architects will be more hesitant about the role they play on the project, contractual limits on their liability, and the availability of insurance coverage.\u00a0 Architects may also become more concerned about the processes a developer establishes for the resolution of defect\u00a0and design claims.<\/p>\n<p>What Solutions Are Available?\u00a0 The insurance industry will probably eventually offer solutions that take some of the sting out of the current decision.\u00a0 In the meantime, residential developers may face hurdles to hiring quality architects for their projects, particularly attached residential projects..\u00a0 Developers may want to\u00a0review their dispute resolution procedures to ensure they cover design defects as well as construction defects and that their dispute resolution provisions are updated to reflect the recent case law trends extending liability to common law claims.<\/p>\n<p>via <a href=\"http:\/\/www.constructionandinfrastructurelawblog.com\/2014\/07\/articles\/construction-claims-and-litigation\/principal-architects-on-residential-projects-liable-for-construction-defects-outside-their-control-developers-and-owners-may-pay-the-price\/#more-1584\">Principal Architects on Residential Projects Liable for Construction Defects Outside Their Control; Developers and Owners May Pay the Price | Construction &amp; Infrastructure Law Blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Meredith Jones-McKeown &#8211; July 16, 2014 Beacon Residential Community Assoc. v. Skidmore, Owings &amp; Merrill, LLP\u00a0(Cal. Supreme Court., 07\/03\/2014, S208173) On July 3, 2014, the California Supreme Court decided the much watched case Beacon Residential Community Assoc. v. Skidmore, Owings &amp; Merrill, LLP.\u00a0 The court held that the \u201cprincipal architect\u201d \u201cowes a duty of care&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/principal-architects-residential-projects-liable-construction-defects-outside-control-developers-owners-may-pay-price\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Principal Architects on Residential Projects Liable for Construction Defects Outside Their Control; Developers and Owners May Pay the Price<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[118,19,775,3],"class_list":["post-3847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-construction-defects","category-insurance-claims","tag-architect","tag-construction-defects-2","tag-duty-of-care","tag-insurance-claims","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Principal Architects on Residential Projects Liable for Construction Defects Outside Their Control; Developers and Owners May Pay the Price - Advise &amp; Consult, Inc.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/principal-architects-residential-projects-liable-construction-defects-outside-control-developers-owners-may-pay-price\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Principal Architects on Residential Projects Liable for Construction Defects Outside Their Control; Developers and Owners May Pay the Price - Advise &amp; Consult, Inc.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Meredith Jones-McKeown &#8211; July 16, 2014 Beacon Residential Community Assoc. v. 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Skidmore, Owings &amp; Merrill, LLP.\u00a0 The court held that the \u201cprincipal architect\u201d \u201cowes a duty of care&hellip; Continue reading Principal Architects on Residential Projects Liable for Construction Defects Outside Their Control; Developers and Owners May Pay the Price","og_url":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/principal-architects-residential-projects-liable-construction-defects-outside-control-developers-owners-may-pay-price\/","og_site_name":"Advise &amp; Consult, Inc.","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Advise-Consult-Inc-126949043996790\/","article_published_time":"2014-08-12T12:22:58+00:00","author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@adviseconsult","twitter_site":"@adviseconsult","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/principal-architects-residential-projects-liable-construction-defects-outside-control-developers-owners-may-pay-price\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/principal-architects-residential-projects-liable-construction-defects-outside-control-developers-owners-may-pay-price\/"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0a11abe008083d5fb19c2b0feefe7bd7"},"headline":"Principal Architects on Residential Projects Liable for Construction Defects Outside Their Control; 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