Owner and Design Professional Agreement (Short Form) - 245

This is a standard short-form agreement between an Owner of a construction project and a Design Professional to perform a full range of design (architectural or engineering services) and administrative services for a construction project. This agreement is to be used with a design-bid-build project requiring the project’s Owner to hire a Design Professional (architect or engineer) to provide design services (Basic and possibly Additional Services). This agreement includes Basic Services and Other Additional Services.

The general conditions include the responsibilities allocated to each party and address critical contract issues. The contract issues include: confidentiality, time for services, consequential damages, delays by the Design Professional or Owner, compensation, indemnity, insurance, termination, dispute resolution and mitigation, ownership of documents, the standard of care, and the ability of the Design Professional to request financial information. Parties can modify the terms of the agreement for their individual project needs and state law requirements.

This agreement assumes that construction services will be provided by a Constructor (aka builder, general contractor, design-bid-builder, construction manager). This agreement is appropriate for a small project but can also be used for medium to large projects if desired.