Negligence by quantity surveyors

Abstract

Quantity surveyors are professionals that are involved in almost all phases of construction processes and throughout the life of the construction projects. The work of quantity surveyors includes the preparation of building contracts, assist in the negotiation and procurement of quotations for specialist works, preparation and valuation of interim certificates, valuation of variation works, preparing claims for the employer, preparation of final accounts and many others. Therefore, quantity surveyors are said to owe duty of care to the parties they contract with. In addition they also owe a duty of care to third parties under tort. The standard of their duty of care is generally the normal reasonable care and skill. Just like any other professionals, the quantity surveyors also commit acts of negligence in the performance of their duty. They may thereby be liable to those who are injured by their negligent acts. The issue in this is research is that, what are those negligent acts that may cause the quantity surveyors liable to those injured parties. The objective of this research is to identify the conducts of the quantity surveyors that lead to professional negligence. The methodology used in this research is basically descriptive in nature. The data required are obtained from law reports retrieved from the LexisNexis Malaysia online database. The scope of this research covers both Malaysian and English cases. There were a total of fourteen cases. However, not all of them relate exclusively to quantity surveyors. They include no-quantity surveyor cases but the principles set out in them are equally applicable to quantity surveyors. The finding of the research is that the quantity surveyors are very much exposed to the negligence in the pre contract phase than any other phases.