Basic principles
Special attention must be paid when drafting an architecture or civil engineer contract:
The legal provisions are
- often not sufficiently deep enough
- not tailored to the construction requirements
Individual changes
- to the legal provisions must
- be expertly formulated
- create and establish clear legal foundations on whether and to what extent
- the amended law still applies (no longer OR / new SIA standards)
- certain (thematically “independent”) legal consequences are regulated different individually and conclusively
- which other law or which other terms and conditions (for example, SIA or GTC) are invoked.
- harbour dangers with regard to applicable law and the contract contents, such as
- interpretation disadvantageous to the author
- the hierarchy clauses of the SIA standards
- the restricted validity of the GTCs
- coordination and circular reasoning problems in references and subsequent references
- to contract templates
- must match in legal nature and context.
SIA standards and form contracts
The SIA standards
The construction sector is mainly oriented towards:
- SIA standards (Swiss Society of Engineers and Architects)
- SIA orders (Swiss Society of Engineers and Architects).
For everyone involved in the construction – by accepting – relevant SIA orders or standards
- SIA standard 102 (regulation for services and fees of architects)
- SIA standard 103 (regulation for services and fees of civil engineers)
- SIA standard 108 (regulation for services and fees mechanical and electrical engineers as well as expert engineers for building installations)
Other contract understandings or instructions
The contract parties can accept and impose on the content of the contract:
Expert standards
- In the branch standards for expert standards in construction materials or specific types of work, whose application favour the participants for safety or other reasons
- Basic expert standards
Technical standards
- Usually stricter standards than in the recognised architectural and or state of the technology rules
- Basic technical standards
