THE STATUTORY AND TORTUOUS DUTY OF ARCHITECTS AND ENGINEERS IN THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

In the construction industry, the architect and engineer are responsible for critical building works which involve many parties with different interests. In such complex relationships, they cannot be protected fully by the way of contracts. Employers, contractors or other third parties are able to take action against the architect and engineer under the breach of either statutory duty or tortuous duty. It is not surprising that there are many duties imposed on them either in both the statute and tort law to regulate their exercise. The tension of situation increases when they are often brought into the dispute by other parties when something goes wrong. As a result, the question that concerns the architect and engineer who practice in the industry is: to what extent do they owe duty under the statute and the law of tort? This dissertation is done to answer such questions. Firstly, it provides the fundamental base of the statutory and tortuous duty for the architect and engineer to get familiar with these two legal concepts. Then, the rest of the dissertation focuses on Singapore statutes and cases to find out the important duty that the architect and engineer shall owe. These duties will be categorized in accordance to the timeline of a construction project from pre-construction until post construction stage. Comparison with other Commonwealth countries such as UK, Australia, Canada and Hong Kong is carried on to give a comprehensive picture of the Singapore position.