ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the professional regulatory requirements for architects’ appointments. It describes the formalities for correct execution of a professional appointment. A professional indemnity insurer can be expected to take a keen interest in the terms of any professional appointment, framework agreement, collateral warranty or other contract that the architect enters into in relation to their professional work. Guidance Note 3 cross-refers to the RIBA Standard Professional Services Contract 2018 as ‘detailing the key requirements of an appointment’. A number of formalities must be complied with in terms of the description and signing of an agreement in order to make it a deed. For reasons of tradition and convenience, many group practices are in the form of a partnership. A partnership is described as a ‘firm’ never a company. The approach to finalising and executing deeds and documents in the construction industry can be overly ‘relaxed’, sometimes because of the scale of the task involved.
