In a poll conducted during our recent webinar, 53% of participants responded that they are retained to provide “partial” services on more than half of their current projects, and 79% responded that they considered providing partial services on a project was riskier than providing full services. Assuming that the trend to “partial services” is to […]

When it comes to supervising employees or the like in the performance of professional services on a project, it is imperative to consider what obligations you have in supervising that employee’s work.

Our risk managers field a lot of questions about “safe design” obligations when we’re delivering seminars. That’s not surprising. Designers naturally strive to produce good designs that protect workers as much as possible. On top of that, work health and safety law imposes alarmingly high maximum penalties, as a serious deterrent. The very worst breaches […]

TIn addition to our professional development products, informed provides a contract review service to help consultants understand the insurance and risk implications of professional services agreements. Reviewing over 1300 contracts each year puts us in a unique position to observe changes in client-drafted contracts, and gives us a general snapshot of the construction industry. In […]

The informed team, with some third party experts, have packaged two hours of web-based seminars covering the key aspects for consultants. We’ve called these two modules “Starting Out” …where we keep it straightforward for each topic – in each case asking:  (1) What are these issues? (2) What are the specific risks involved for you?

On 16 January 2017, the Building Appeals Board (BAB) in Victoria rejected builder LU Simon’s alternative solution for managing the risks associated with the external cladding on the Lacrosse Building. What does this mean for consultants?

Disputing parties will typically have access to the Australian court system[1] to seek resolution of disputes under a consultancy agreement; however there are other forms of dispute resolution which can be contemplated in the consultancy agreement. 

In the last decade, 17 construction workers have been killed and 1,350 injured (many severely) due to falls from height on construction sites, so the need for working safely at height has never been greater.

From July 2017, property developers in NSW will be required to pay a bond of 2% of building costs. The direct purpose of the bond is to offer a new layer of protection to purchasers, by funding rectification of building defects discovered over the first two years after completion.

It’s certainly the big news in commercial contracts for this year! And now the date for these changes to the unfair contracts legislation (contained in the ASIC Act and Australian Consumer Law) which extend it to small business contracts, is imminent: the key date is 12th November 2016.