Burgess v Lejonvarn [2017] EWCA Civ 254
Citation: Burgess v Lejonvarn [2017] EWCA Civ 254
Rule of thumb: What happens if an architect’s cost estimate is too vague to cover their own back? This is negligence – there should be a clear & firm costs range.
Judgment:
When architects provide drawings they must also supply an accurate estimate of how much the plans will cost to construct. The defendant was an architect who was originally friends with the plaintiffs and provided initial architectural designs for free in relation to a landscape gardening project they were doing. The relationship then ended and the architect did not provide costs estimates or project management. The project went ahead but then ran into massive financial difficulties when the plaintiffs tried to carry construct the designs. The Court held that although there were no fees paid, there was still a professional relationship established that required a professional standard of care to be provided, and this was not provided in this case – when architects provide any sort of design they must follow through and price it all accordingly and see everything through. This also serves as a warning to any professional who provide free services to friends that they must fully see their duties through and not think that because they are acting for free they are entitled to walk away, ‘In so far as Mrs Lejonvarn provided designs to enable the Garden Project to be priced, thereby performing a professional service acting as an architect and project manager, she owed a duty to exercise reasonable skill and care to ensure that they were sufficient to enable a fairly firm budget estimate to be prepared’, Hamblen LJ at 107
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