ABSTRACT
Warranties and bonds protect various people, but for every person protected the warranty or bond imposes an additional obligation on someone else. Warranties are commonly provided by sub-contractors to the employer or by architects to future tenants or purchasers of property. Whether, and the extent to which, they should be provided and what such warranties should contain are sources of dispute. Bonds are provided by contractors to the employer for various reasons: to ensure performance, in response to advance payment, to justify valuation of off-site materials and so on. Novation is very common and often used to transfer the architect’s appointment to the employer to become the architect’s appointment to the contractor. Unfortunately, it raises questions of conflict of interest and liability.
