RIBA publish Construction Act 1996 updates to appointments

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has published amendments to the payment terms of its suite of appointments, including RIBA Standard Agreement 2010: Architect, following the changes to Part II of the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 (Construction Act 1996) introduced by Part 8 of the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009 (LDEDC Act 2009). RIBA state that the amendments should be used with all RIBA appointments dated on or after 1 October 2011, in England and Wales.

Clients should note that new clause 5.15 of Standard Conditions of Appointment for an Architect 2010 requires a client to, in effect, include the information previously required in a withholding notice in any pay less notice. That is, contractually, a pay less notice must still include the grounds for withholding a payment. This seems an unnecessary complication for clients to deal with, as it seeks to reflect both the old law (on withholding) and the new law (on paying less) into a single clause and notice.

We have updated Practice note, RIBA Agreements 2010 to include links to the individual amendments published on-line by RIBA.

For more information on the changes to the Construction Act 1996, see Practice note, Getting ready for the Construction Act 1996 changes.