THE SCOPE OF A QUANTITY SURVEYOR’S DUTY

In Dhamija v Sunningdale Joineries Ltd [2010] EWHC 2396 (TCC), [2010] All ER (D) 152 (Oct) Mr Justice Coulson rejected the submission that a term was to be implied into a contract between an employer on a building project and a quantity surveyor that the duty of the latter was ‘to only value work that had been properly executed by the contractor and was not obviously defective.’ It was the obligation of the architect, not the quantity surveyor, to identify and report on defects in the works. The term to be implied into the contract was, from the perspective of a quantity surveyor, a less onerous one, namely to ‘act with the reasonable skill and care of quantity surveyors of ordinary competence and experience when valuing the works properly executed for the purposes of the interim certificates.’