Category: 2020

Did you miss something? Well after a year like this one has been, we wouldn’t be surprised! Despite the country being locked down for months on end, the occasional non-COVID related development did happen. Let’s take a moment now to look at some of the industry reforms we’ve kept you in touch with over 2020. […]

Our team of Risk Managers draw on their legal experience to provide the program of webinars, articles and live events you’re used to hearing about on this mailing list. On top of that, we also provide value-add services for many professional indemnity insurance clients of our sister business, Planned Cover. These include the widely used […]

In a perfect world, a design consultant would not proceed to perform services on a project until a full and complete written contract had been entered into and signed by both parties. The benefits of doing just that are significant and include being certain of your rights, obligations and liabilities, having a detailed brief and […]

Among the projects going ahead during the COVID-19 slowdown, there seems to be a particularly high proportion that include sub-consultant engagements. By “sub-consultant”, we mean a specialist consultant who is engaged by you, or by your sub-consultants. We don’t mean other specialist consultants who are engaged by (say) the client or the builder. Every consultant […]

If you joined us for our informed by Planned Cover ‘State of Play’ webinar earlier this year, you would have heard me discuss the outcome of the first ‘combustible cladding’ case to be decided in New South Wales. The decision was appealed by the property developer and builder, with the appeal judgment being handed down […]

Are you seeing clauses where your practice is being asked to waive its rights if it is a member of an association under a Professional Standards Scheme now and/or in the future? Well recently, we have been! Understandably, this is something that many design consultants highlight as a risk due to the idea that they […]

In July 2019 a Public Accountability Committee inquiry, chaired by Mr David Shoebridge MLC, was established to investigate and report on the regulation of building standards, building quality and building disputes by government agencies in New South Wales. A first report was tabled by the Committee on 13 November 2019. The final report of the […]

How can we provide risk management services in the current climate? As it turns out, almost exactly the same as we always have! It’s very much business as usual for our risk management team. From our perspective, looking at the construction industry through contracts and education, this is what we’re seeing of the pandemic. Contract […]

informed Practice Guides are a series of guidance notes covering topics on which consultants commonly ask us for assistance. They range from contract-related topics such as Working on Your Own Terms and Fitness for Purpose, to practical issues like Inspections and Certification and Product Substitutions. Regular users and those who keep a locally saved copy […]