Standard of Care of a Home Designer

[Forensic74]

I have found that there's a whole industry out there of Home Designers. These are folks who are not licensed architects or engineers, but put together comprehensive design drawings for contractors to utilize. They seem to get around the professional license requirements by the disclaimer that the design is per the IRC.

My question is, does anyone here know the standard of care of such Home Designers and who is ultimately taking responsibility for their "design"? Specifically, are they required to see a design through the construction phase? Coordinate with GC? If an important detail is erroneous or omitted, do they have any liability?

 

[JAE]

In our state (and many US states that I'm aware of) one and two family residential is typically excluded from the Architectural and Engineering practice acts - usually based on square footage of the structure.

For example, in one nearby state they allow any house less than 10,000 s.f. (including basement but excluding garages) to not require a professional license seal.

As far as standard of care, or accountability, they would be legally liable for anything that goes wrong just like anyone else. They could be sued, say, if a floor caved in.

The home builder usually has insurance (liability) and sometimes provides structural warranties (sort of an insurance policy) to homeowners to "warrant" or "guarantee" the structure at the time of buying - perhaps for 10 years or so.



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[Forensic74]

What about issues/questions that come up during construction? Particularly for details. It seems like they have no required standard of care to conduct inspections during construction to ensure details are being followed and/or answer RFI's. Is a subtle difference than with a licensed AIA, and I wonder if that drastically changes the liability for the GC.

When a designer is involved, is the GC basically on his own to interpret the plans and/or modify them as he deems necessary?

 

[JAE]

Well most homes get inspected by city inspectors at various stages of construction.

Are the inspections intensive and thorough? Sometimes probably not.



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[Canuck65]

In my jurisdiction, residential designers do need to be licensed, but to a much lower standard than an engineer or architect. They can only practice within the small building/residential area of the code and our code includes prescriptive design tables and code clauses that govern their design. If any element of their design, for example a long, heavily loaded ridge beam, falls outside of the prescriptive design tables, that element is supposed to be engineered. These plans get reviewed by a plans examiner at the building department before a building permit is issued. They have the opportunity to question the designer and ask for revisions. During construction, typically the only inspection is by the municipal building inspector at preset intervals, i.e. foundation inspection, framing inspection, etc... When questions arise, normally the contractor or building inspector will call the designer to clarify. To answer your question, the residential designer's responsibility is to produce plans that conform to the requirements of the building code, the Contractor is responsible for the construction and the inspector is there looking over everyone's shoulders. Typically residential designers do not complete any field inspection.

 

[Ron]

Forensic74....they are not licensed professionals and are therefore not held to a standard of care, which must be defined by the profession. As you know, Engineering, Architecture and, to some degree, Construction Contracting have established standards of care. Construction is a bit loosey goosey, but can be reasonably defined in an area.

In my (not so humble) opinion, I think all individuals who design for the public, in any form, should be licensed and held to appropriate standards. Unfortunately, the prescriptive code entities tend to take the view that residential construction, in the prescriptive sense, is over-designed and does not need the overview of any profession. This wrongly assumes that the only "damage" done to the public is if something falls down or someone gets electrocuted or a fire results from the sometimes poorly conceived designs. Damage is any loss to the owner such as.....any lessening of the expected useful life, any creation of inordinate maintenance, or any structural deficiency. Because there is often a disconnect between the "designer" and the construction process (you pay X for the plans and the "designer" is done), details are often left to the labor pool guy in the field. Not good.

Ok...I'll get off my soapbox before I really get wound up.....

 

[JAE]

And based on Ron's comments - can you see me sitting up in my attic at home after realizing that my roof framing has NO metal hold-down ties between rafter and wall? I was sort of crying.

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[Ron]

JAE....I feel for ya brother! Find it all the time....even here where the wind loads are fairly high!

Come back down and I'll buy the beer!

 

[JAE]

It would be my round, I think.

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[SLTA]

A few years back I was asked to investigate a 5000SF house hanging to the side of a mountain that sold for $3mil (a lot around here). Exposed trusses, framing all which-a-ways, crazy lengths. I was asked to guarantee that the house was in good structural condition. I asked for the architectural and structural drawings and was given a set by a "designer" in Colorado, with no info about my state in it, and drawings so convoluted that I finally decided the elevations of the roof beams did an MC Escher thing. It was also not built according to the plans. So... I looked at the parts I could see and limited the snot out of my liability.

I found around here that in '06 and '07 there were a lot of "designer" houses being built, that the inspection depts didn't have time to properly inspect. 10 years later, I'm getting a lot of calls about these houses. Whoopsies.

Please remember: we're not all guys!

 

[XR250]

I was asked to guarantee that the house was in good structural condition

I think my insurance company would drop me if I ever gave a guarantee on something. I would def. take that word out of my vocabulary.

 

[SLTA]

Oh yeah, no. I used all the appropriate words and explained to the homeowner exactly why I wouldn't guarantee anything.

Please remember: we're not all guys!

 

[Ron]

10 years later, I'm getting a lot of calls about these houses. Whoopsies.

Opportunities....as we discussed yesterday!!

 

[JoelTXCive]

As a former homebuilder, I can tell you that in Texas the large majority (probably 90%+) of all homes are drawn up by building designers versus architects. I think of them more as 'artists' being paid for their creativity and experience in designing floorplans/elevations. To my knowledge, they pretty much walk away clean from any professional responsibility for their plans.

Interesting sidetopic: I read an article that the reason all these building designers exist is because the architectural licensure process is such a long, grueling process with multiple exams. Apparently many candidates just don't feel it's worth the time & effort.

 

[JLNJ]

I know a guy who resisted getting his architecture license just so he could draw house plans with no legal repercussions. No standard of care, no profession, no liability. Voila!

He did finally become an RA just before the AIA tightened the education requirements so that he could be grandfathered in.

Homebuilders and Owners want everything on the cheap. Professionals cost more. That's it in a nutshell. The failures are few and far between so the law never bothers (or needs) to catch up.

 

[txeng91]

JAE, if it makes you feel any better, you could've paid for your house to be "engineered" only for the framer to never even see the structural drawings, assuming they can even interpret them. Maybe the contractor would've ordered a box of hurricane ties he saw on the plans so they could be installed on the interior face of the wall, where the only tension connection between the top plate and the foundation is sheet rock. For 95% of the houses I have engineered, no one ever calls for a framing inspection (even though it is included in the proposal) and the 5% do I show up and it takes 5 minutes to realize no one actually read the plans, then I send a report to whoever paid for it noting everything that is wrong and never hear from them again, it's extremely depressing.