SA Affordable Housing July / August 2018 // Issue: 71 | Page 11

ASSOCIATIONS
Putlitz says today’s principal agent’s role is complex and a
far cry from the ‘employer’s agent’ of old.
“Building contracts traditionally included an employer’s
agent to administer the execution of the works by the
contractor and subcontractors. This agent was usually the
consulting engineer or architect who designed the works.
However, in recent years the execution function has
been separated from the design function by the emergence
of a ‘principal consultant’ to coordinate the numerous
disciplines involved in modern buildings, and the
‘principal agent’ (or ‘contract administrator’ in some
standard form contracts) to administer and manage the
construction phase. In some standard form contracts, this
A typical building site.
Uwe Putlitz, CEO of the Joint Building Contracts Committee.
person is referred to as the ‘project manager’ whose duties
may be limited to the execution phase or include the pre-
and post- construction phases.”
In an English court case (Scheldebouw BV versus St James
Homes), it was held that the principal agent has, in the first
place, an agency function to execute instructions from the
employer and, secondly, a decision-making function when
the employer and contractor may have opposing interests.
“The execution of any building project requires team
work, good communication and competent administration
apart from the construction skills. Should any dispute arise,
and the project records are not incomplete or not easily
accessible, it will be more difficult, time consuming and
expensive to resolve such issues,” Putlitz adds.