A Code of Conduct for Contractors & Clients
The Royal Institute of Ireland’s motto is :
Architects design, guide, manage,
and advise.
The RIAI have a Architect's Code of Conduct that we members must adhere
to. Broken down into three principles.
1 General Obligations
2 Obligations to
Clients and Employers
3 Obligations to the Profession
Winkens Architecture approach:
This is based on our experience and relates
to building one-off-Houses. Commercial projects are even much more complex.
Clients
We usually are employed by our clients to
provide a full set of architectural services.
From our first meeting to the day they move in, to the day of the
retention release, we are there to guide and advise our clients with knowledge
that we have built up over a few decades.
Even before the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) kicked in on the 25th May 2018 we kept our clients' information confidential.
Information given to us in writing or in
conversations helps us to customise /streamline our service given. We have a very detailed written agreement
outlining our services, broken down into different parts and several stages
each. This is the basis of our relationship.
Contractors
We try to have a good working relationship
with Contractors. These are the steps we take to reach construction of a dwelling.
The tender package of working drawings,
details and outline specification is usually started after a positive planning
permission decision. We are aware that more information Contractors are given
the better the tender received will be. We believe that it is our
responsibility to ensure contractors have a detailed idea of the dwelling
and work to be costed for. The tender package includes structural engineers’
drawings and a preliminary BER that should be achieved by the specifications we
provide.
The tender is sent out to a limited number of
contractors for a set time. The next day of the tender return we go through the
tenders to make sure there no mathematical errors.
The clients are shown all of the tender
documents received and a recommendation is given as to which builder we should consider. We then talk to the contractor to ascertain if the project is fully understood. The successful tenderer is asked to sign a
building agreement with the client.
Build
After the nomination of a Contractor, our
duty is to be the go-between of client and the contractor. We convey
information between them and make sure both are treated fairly.
Form the onset (design stage) we advise our clients
to keep changes to a minimum. Our site visits are in line with progress made on
site. Once the contractor puts in a
payment claim we visit the site to see if progress is in line with the claim
and try to issue a payment cert swiftly, as Banks are quite slow these days with
their stage payments.
Variations or extras to the original
agreement are best called out as they happen to avoid a big surprise at the
end.
At the end of the build the final builders
claim usually is settled with a meeting between the clients, contractor and
ourselves.
A 2.5% retention of the final payment is kept
on completion and released after six months, to cover any eventual items that
need sorting.
With the release of the retention from client
to Contractor our involvements with them both ends, for this project.
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| Winkens Architecture, Passive House, Bunclody, Co. Wexford |
#ArchiTalksIE
This was my first
contribution to a shared discussion among architects practicing in Ireland,
where we will discuss aspects of our services and the profession, under the
Twitter hashtag #ArchitalksIE
By using this
hashtag on twitter, or links provided within each blog itself, you can connect
to the other architect’s blog on the same topic. Our blogs will be posted
synchronously on the same time same day. We hope you will enjoy this format and
benefit from the broad professional views and different approaches to the same
issues.
Twitter: Zeno the Architect @winkenswexford
Read my colleague's blogs on the subject:
