Guide letter 5: Advice to client
Published:
27 August 2012
Edited:
1 December 2021
Read time: 2 minutes
Guide letters provide advice about matters architects should consider when composing letters to the parties involved in architectural projects.
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Agreements
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Resources
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Client information notes
- Client note: Architects' fees
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- Client note: Your brief to your architect
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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
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- 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
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Energy saving design
- A guide to daylighting of buildings
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- Residential passive design for temperate climates
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Energy saving technologies
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Health and happiness
- Biophilic design: an introduction for designers
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Materials
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Place
- Climate
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Habitat and ecology
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Land use
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Process
- Beyond carbon neutrality
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- Optimising environmental performance
- Rating systems
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- Section J and commercial building facade design: NCC 2022
- Sustainability and building information modelling (BIM)
- Sustainability framework for practice
- Sustainable design – a client briefing
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- 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
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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
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- 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
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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