Common risks for architects
Published:
22 October 2025
Common risk areas for architects include liability for free advice, partial services, design and documentation without contract administration, contract administration on another architects’ design, certification without full inspection and contract administration, pre-purchase and other inspections, valuations, pro bono services, working in specialist areas, secondment of staff and staff qualifications.
Page contents
- Liability for free advice
- Sketch or development documents
- Design and documentation without contract administration
- Contract administration on another architects' design
- Certification without full inspection and contract administration
- Pre-purchase and other inspections
- Valuations
- Pro bono services
- Working in specialist areas
- Procurement, contracts and risk allocation
- Professional indemnity (PI)
- Digital/BIM/cybersecurity risks
- Secondment of staff
- Staff qualifications
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Practice
- Alternative dispute resolution
- Business structure and planning
- Ethics
- Fees
- Human resources
- Indigenous matters in architectural practice
- Legislation
- Marketing and communications
- Office administration and manual structure
- Quality management
- Risk management and insurances
- Understanding work health and safety (WHS) legislation
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Project
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Agreements
- Agreements - principles
- Agreements for office and retail tenancy work
- Architect-Specialist Consultant Agreement 2017
- Avoiding personal contracts
- Client and architect agreements
- Client-generated agreements
- Fitness for purpose
- Legal person
- Novation
- Principles for balanced and insurable client-architect agreements
- Variation to services
- BIM – Building information modelling
- Brief
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Building contracts
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ABIC contracts
- ABIC contracts – Australian Capital Territory
- ABIC contracts – New South Wales
- ABIC contracts – Northern Territory
- ABIC contracts – Queensland
- ABIC contracts – South Australia
- ABIC contracts –Tasmania
- ABIC contracts – Victoria
- ABIC contracts – Western Australia
- ABIC contracts - statutory approvals
- ABIC Basic Works BW 2018
- ABIC Commercial Cost Plus CP-2014 C
- ABIC contract works insurance
- ABIC SW 2018 H Schedule 2a – staged payments
- Australian Standards contracts
- Building contract - execution
- Building contract deposits
- Building contract insurances
- Contract preparation
- Contractual liability
- Cost-plus contracts: Considerations
- Particular persons
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Special Conditions for HIA Alterations Additions Renovations
- HIA ACT Residential Alterations and Additions
- HIA NSW Residential Renovations and Additions
- HIA NT Residential Alterations and Additions
- HIA Qld Alteration, Addition and Renovation
- HIA SA Alterations and Additions
- HIA Tasmanian Residential Building
- HIA Victorian Alterations, Additions and Renovations
- HIA WA Lump Sum Alterations and Additions
- Special Conditions for HIA New Homes Contracts
- Termination rights and insolvency events
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ABIC contracts
- Client and architect relationship
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Core architectural services
- Pre-design
- Concept design
- Design development
- Design considerations
- Material considerations
- Planning/Development application
- Construction documentation
- Contractor selection
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Contract administration
- Certificates
- Clerk of works
- Contract administration versus supervision
- Contractor's role in construction
- Extensions of time
- Latent conditions
- Mandatory inspections
- Practical completion
- Prevention Principle and the implied duty of cooperation
- Progress payments
- Remote sites - contract administration
- Security – bank guarantees and cash retention
- Substitutions
- Partial services
- Regulatory requirements
- Post construction
- Other architectural services
- Procurement
- Project bid
- Project control
- Specialist consultants
- Time records
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Agreements
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Resources
- Access design guide
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Client information notes
- Client note: Architects' fees
- Client note: Contingency sums
- Client note: Contractor variations resulting in a credit
- Client note: Copyright in architecture
- Client note: Insurance for work to existing buildings
- Client note: Managing your project costs
- Client note: Opening up and testing the works
- Client note: Practical completion and the final certificate
- Client note: Progress payments during construction
- Client note: Project supply chain and labour impacts
- Client note: Selecting an architect
- Client note: The independent role of the project manager
- Client note: Variations to construction scope
- Client note: What are an architect's moral rights?
- Client note: Your brief to your architect
- Construction industry legal comment
- COVID-19 project considerations
- Free legal reference service (FLRS)
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Guide letters
- Guide letter 1: Advice to client - conditions of engagement
- Guide letter 2: Confirmation to client
- Guide letter 3: Advice to client - specialist consultants
- Guide letter 4: Request to specialist consultants
- Guide letter 5: Advice to client
- Guide letter 6: Request to client for confirmation
- Guide letter 7: Confirmation - appointment of consultant
- Guide letter 8: Briefing of specialist consultant
- Guide letter 9: Recommendation to client - additional fees
- Guide letter 10: Site - request to client for information
- Guide letter 11: Advice to client - architects' fees due
- Guide letter 12: Secondary consultants' fee accounts
- Guide letter 13: Advice to client on authority conditions
- Guide letter 14: Advice to client at stage completion
- Guide letter 15: Advice to client - pre-contract progress
- Guide letter 16: Advice to client on implications of changes
- Guide letter 17: Recommendation to client - clerk of works
- Guide letter 18: Advice to client - building contract
- Guide letter 19: Confirmation to client - contract
- Guide letter 20: Pre-tender information
- Guide letter 21: Confirmation to client - tender details
- Guide letter 22: Tender assessment and report
- Guide letter 23: Successful tenderer - letter of acceptance
- Guide letter 24: Successful tenderer
- Guide letter 25: Unsuccessful tenderers - advice
- Guide letter 26: Insurance - request to contractor
- Guide letter 27: Clerk of works – employment advice
- Guide letter 28: Advice to client - execution of contract
- Guide letter 29: Recommendation to client - variations
- Guide letter 30: Advice to client - expenditure
- Guide letter 31: Advice to client - building progress
- Guide letter 32: Advice to client - contractor's breach
- Guide letter 33: Advice to client - works nearing completion
- Guide letter 34: Advice to contractor - practical completion
- Guide letter 35: Confirmation to client - defects
- Guide letter 36: Advice to contractor - defects
- Guide letter 37: Advice to client - final certificate
- Guide letter 38: Completion - thanking contractor
- Guide letter 39: Documenting a project from another practice
- Glossary of Terms
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Environment
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Case studies
- Urine-separation and dry composting toilet trial
- Bay Pavilions Arts + Aquatic
- Building T, Deakin University
- Commercial
- Conversion of a heritage-listed industrial building
- Kelvin Grove Urban Village
- Marrickville Library
- Newcastle CSIRO Energy Centre
- Post occupancy evaluation of evaporative cooling
- QUT Peter Coaldrake Education Precinct
- Residential
- The Erskine Building, Christchurch
- Urine-separation and dry composting
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Energy
- Cutting lifetime residential greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
- Embodied carbon in buildings
- Drivers of energy and water efficiency in commercial office buildings
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Energy saving design
- A guide to daylighting of buildings
- A solar atlas for Tasmania
- Airtightness and thermal bridging in buildings
- Best practice in lighting
- Construction details for cool temperate climates
- Daylighting of buildings
- Double-skin facades
- Evaluating advanced facade systems for commercial buildings
- Passivhaus: low energy buildings in Australasia
- Properties and rating systems for glazings, windows and skylights (including atria)
- Residential passive design for temperate climates
- Thermal mass and insulation for temperate climates
- Thermal mass for cool temperate climates
- Thermal mass in building design
- Thermal performance in a dry temperate climate
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Energy saving technologies
- Artificial lighting design
- Adjusting building thermostats for environmental gains
- Building thermostats – issues
- Building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV)
- Chilled ceilings and beams
- Considerations for residential appliances and equipment
- Low-energy hot water systems
- Operating a building
- Photovoltaic cells – how they work
- The legal right to solar access
- Implementing energy efficiency
- Life cycle energy analysis
- Designing, managing and retrofitting non-residential buildings to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
- Revisiting energy efficiency in commercial buildings
- Ventilation
- Environment glossary
- Equity
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Health and happiness
- Biophilic design: an introduction for designers
- Design for minimal radiation exposure
- Designing user-friendly passive buildings
- Green buildings and productivity
- Health and productivity in sustainable buildings
- Indoor environment quality
- Light pollution
- Mental landscapes
- Protecting against solar UVR
- The shade audit
- Urban air quality
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Materials
- Building materials selection – greenhouse strategies
- Comparative service life assessment of window systems
- Concrete and sustainability
- Green specifying
- Lead hazards in construction – a designer's guide
- Life cycle assessment (LCA)
- Low CO2 Concrete
- Phase change materials – overview
- Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) – its use in construction
- Strategies and resources for material selection
- Straw bale construction
- Sustainable housing using lightweight cellular concrete
- The environmental impact of building materials
- Timber and wood
- Waste management
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Place
- Climate
- GIS and remote sensing for transport
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Habitat and ecology
- Biodiversity and the built environment
- Birds and buildings
- Ecological connectivity design strategies
- Green roofs – understanding their benefits for Australia
- Green roofs for energy efficiency
- Living walls – a way to green the built environment
- Measuring site biodiversity for sustainable development
- Architecture’s role in the repair of the natural environment
- Roof and facade gardens
- Vegetation and habitat conservation – a strategic framework
- Infrastructure and transportation
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Land use
- Architecture, planning and food
- Erosion and sediment control
- Lend Lease and sustainability
- Land resource assessment
- Permaculture introduction and urban farming
- Permaculture principles and application
- Planning the green city
- Site planning and design for bushfire
- Sustainability in metropolitan planning
- Sustainable communities
- Towards sustainable urbanism
- Urban planning for sustainability
- Physical activity links to healthcare costs and productivity
- Planning for transit oriented development
- Predicting transport greenhouse gases
- Remote area building and sustainable development
- Sustainable metropolitan transport
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Process
- Beyond carbon neutrality
- Building environmental performance assessment
- Domestic building energy assessment
- Marketing ecologically sustainable design skills
- Optimising environmental performance
- Rating systems
- Regenerative design approaches
- Residential retrofitting
- Section J and commercial building facade design: NCC 2022
- Sustainability and building information modelling (BIM)
- Sustainability framework for practice
- Sustainable design – a client briefing
- Systems thinking
- The role of emotion and logic in sustainable design
- Understanding buildings in operation
- Understanding quantification
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Water
- Embodied water in construction
- On-site domestic wastewater treatment and reuse
- Practice of water sensitive urban design
- Raingardens and bioretention tree pits
- Sustainable water use
- Water conservation and harvesting in Adelaide
- Water sensitive urban design – an overview
- Water sensitive urban design thus far
- Wetlands, storage and reuse system
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Case studies
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Notepacks
- Budgets and cost control notepack
- Building procurement notepack
- Business continuity
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Construction documentation notepack
- ABIC contracts - statutory approvals
- Accessible adult change facilities
- Approval processes for planning and construction
- Australian Standards
- Condensation in Buildings Handbook
- Construction drawings
- DDA - the Premises Standards, BCA and alternative solutions
- External stairs and ramps
- Managing teams
- National Construction Code (NCC)
- Non-complying building products
- Quality control checklist
- Referencing standard documents
- Safety in design FAQs
- Safety in design guide
- Section J and commercial building facade design: NCC 2022
- Specification writing
- Termite management
- Trade package documentation
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COVID-19 notepack
- Client note: Project supply chain and labour impacts
- COVID-19 contract related FAQs
- COVID-19 project considerations
- COVID-19 risks and contract options
- COVID-19 site inspection considerations
- Delays in the supply of materials
- Flexible working arrangements
- Guide letter 16: Advice to client on implications of changes
- Health and happiness
- Leave entitlements and obligations
- Mental health in the profession
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Disaster response notepack
- Bushfire or pro bono work – special conditions CAA2019
- Common risks for architects
- Designing to heal – part A
- Designing to heal – part B
- Development in bushfire prone areas
- Heat stress resistant residential design in Australia
- Pro bono or reduced fee services
- Projects in bushfire-prone areas
- Site planning and design for bushfire
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Embodied energy notepack
- Comparative service life assessment of window systems
- Residential appliances and equipment
- Cutting lifetime residential GHG emissions
- Design for disassembly
- Ecological waste
- Embodied carbon in buildings
- Life cycle energy analysis
- Material selection for waste minimisation
- Sustainability and building information modelling (BIM)
- Thermal mass in building design
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National Construction Code (NCC) 2022 notepack
- Accessible adult change facilities
- Accessible entry
- Airtightness and thermal bridging in buildings
- Residential appliances and equipment
- Cutting lifetime residential GHG emissions
- National Construction Code (NCC)
- Performance Solutions
- Performance Solutions in fire engineering
- Residential sustainability rating tools
- Section J and commercial building facade design: NCC 2022
- Site planning and design for bushfire
- When to engage a fire safety engineer
- NSCA 2021 notepack
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Office manual notepack
- Branding notepack
- Business planning notepack
- Company profile notepack
- Contracts notepack
- Digital data processes notepack
- Environment notepack
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Fee notepack
- 2024 Client Architect Agreement (CAA2024)
- Client and architect agreements
- Client note: Architects' fees
- Determining fees for small projects
- Fee calculation
- Fees
- Goods and services tax (GST)
- Guide letter 1: Advice to client - conditions of engagement
- Guide letter 11: Advice to client - architects' fees due
- Guide letter 2: Confirmation to client
- Guide letter 9: Recommendation to client - additional fees
- Low fees - implication for practices
- Partial services - fees
- Financial administration notepack
- Human resources (HR) notepack
- Information technology (IT) notepack
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Insurances and liability notepack
- Architects' liability
- Contractual liability
- Directors and officers insurance
- Duty to disclose liability
- Employee private commissions and liability
- Engagement of contract staff
- General practice insurance
- Liability for manufactured products
- Liability for negligence
- Limitation of liability
- Professional indemnity cover exclusions
- Professional indemnity insurance basics
- Professional indemnity insurance for architects
- Proportionate liability legislation
- Public liability
- Risk management and insurances
- Letters notepack
- Marketing material notepack
- New work notepack
- Premises and practice organisation notepack
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Project documentation notepack
- Client note: Practical completion and the final certificate
- Construction drawings
- Contract administration
- Core architectural services
- Guide letter 20: Pre-tender information
- Guide letter 22: Tender assessment and report
- Guide letter 23: Successful tenderer - letter of acceptance
- Guide letter 24: Successful tenderer - RFI
- Guide letter 25: Unsuccessful tenderers - advice
- Guide letter 37: Advice to client - final certificate
- Practical completion
- Quality control checklist
- Specification writing
- Staged practical completion
- Tenders - calling
- Tenders - receiving and selecting
- Projects notepack
- Quality management notepack
- Risk notepack
- Specialist consultant notepack
- Work health and safety (WHS) notepack
- Selecting products and materials
- Social media notepack
- Starting a practice notepack
- Student SONA notepack