Consultant Design - Quantity Errors

[Road Guy]

Do you feel that if a consultant has massive quantity errors in their plans that require ugly change orders, should the consultant participate in the change order?

If no why and if so how much?

Discuss....

 

[MA_PE]

Where do the consutants errors occur and is his stamp on them? If he is respnsiible for the original contract documents and changes are required because of errors in the contract docuemtns, then yes I believe that he has some responsibility. If the consultant was to the contarctor and errors were on the submittals (that were subsequently reviewed by the project oiwner) then the errors should have been caught by the reviewer and there would, at minimum, be some sharing of the responsibility between the consultant and the reviewer. Either way whomever paid the consultant should recover some costs for the errors from the consultant.

How much and what proportions really depends on the specific circumstances and magnitude of the errors and resulting costs directly associated with those errors.

 

[Dexman PE PMP]

Start with an open dialog with the consultant letting them know of the mistake. Depending on your relationship, they might work something out with you (especially if they haven't invoiced all of their work yet). If they don't want to work with you, compile the costs you incurred due to their f*ck up and file a claim against their E&O insurance. That's why they're supposed to have it.

 

[roadwreck]

Start with an open dialog with the consultant letting them know of the mistake. Depending on your relationship, they might work something out with you (especially if they haven't invoiced all of their work yet). If they don't want to work with you, compile the costs you incurred due to their f*ck up and file a claim against their E&O insurance. That's why they're supposed to have it.

Just yesterday we had a presentation on Professional Services insurance issues. The presentation was given by insurance brokers and basically was going over the things that could get your firm in hot water with the insurer, one thing they told us specifically not to do was to "try and work something out" with a client without contacting the insurer first. Apparently on a lot of policies this will void your coverage. Don't ask me why, but that's what they said.

 

[Road Guy]

We've dealt with this too much in the past I was just curious as to what you all thought..

most try the "You would have paid this cost anyways" argument.

However that generally doesn't fly very well...

I think there are premium costs of having to add something back to the bid (after its let) and not to mention some loss of time...

All the dealings I've been involved with their was usually an agreement signed by both parties....

Some times if it was a small error we have handled it with a "gentlemans agreement" and other times its been ugly..

 

[Peele1]

It totally depends on your relationship with them.

What was the type of mistake, what is the source? Were they given misleading information to start with? Is it one mistake or several? Will you want to work with them in the future? Did they give an estimate or an exact amount? Is this a PE-stamped thing, or a regular consulting work (lower liability)?

Are you seeking damages from them, or just whether or not they should participate in the change order process, I presume as an expert?

 

[IlPadrino]

All my experience is government-related construction. I have yet to see a single case of A/E liability pursued. The push to design-build has greatly simplified this aspect.