Civil Code Compliance for Design Professionals

What is Civil Code / Decennial Liability?

By definition, Decennial Liability (or Responsabilite Decennale) is a form of strict construction liability arising from the French Civil Code under which no proof of negligence is required. It has been adopted by numerous jurisdictions, including the Middle East. As the name suggests, decennial liability lasts for 10 years post construction / handover.

In certain territories, if the subject matter of the contract is the construction of buildings or other fixed installations, the plans for which are made by an architect to be carried out by the Contractor, the Civil Code imposes strict joint decennial liability on the architect and contractor to the client from the date of delivery of the work. Therefore, under the strict joint liability of the Civil Code, an architect can be held jointly liable for work performed by the Contractor. The only exception to joint liability is where scope is restricted to preparing plans and excludes supervision of the execution, whereby the architect will only be liable for defect in the plans.

Typically, most annual practice Professional Liability policies will only cover Design Professionals for their negligence arising from their Professional Services; however, as some territories' Civil Codes impose Strict Liability, these ‘typical’ policies may not respond in certain situations. Paragon has been able to identify specific solutions to deal with the issues faced by our clients.

The markets that are providing the solutions are Lloyds and European Insurance Companies. We have relationships with all of the local insurers who provide local fronting policies to satisfy local codes/regulations.

In addition to the above, most Construction Contracts between UAE Owner/Developers and Design Professionals will stipulate that the Design Professional’s Professional Liability Insurance MUST be placed with a locally licensed Insurance Company.

What are the solutions?

Paragon offers first and third party solutions to manage the risk that decennial liability poses and our experts would be happy to discuss the various options with you.

For territories where other contractual requirements, such as any one claim limits, need to be met Paragon has the ability to provide insurance solutions to overcome such issues.

In addition to the above, Paragon has relationships with law firms in numerous territories to assist clients with specific legal needs.