Consulting Contracts for Professional Engineers 1

[Maui]

Do the practicing professional engineers out there who work as consultants in industry typically enter into individual contracts with your clients? Or do you just send them an invoice after completing the work? Most of the PE consultants that I know simply get a call, show up, and do the work without any contracts at all. Is this a common situation? For those of you who do sign a contract with your clients, what are the basic components of a standard consulting contract? What should always be included as part of such a contract? What should not be included? Are there any common clauses in particular that should be avoided that a client would be likely to incorporate into such a contract? Links to standard consulting contracts for professional engineers would be appreciated if they could be provided. Thank you.

Maui

http://www.EngineeringMetallurgy.com

 

[swertel]

I'm going to refer you to the National Society of Professional Engineering and their recommended contract documents (EJCDC).

http://www.nspe.org/ejcdc/index.html

There was an article in a recent PE magazine about making sure guarantees are not in your contract language.

--Scott
www.wertel.pro

 

[greenone]

Without a contract, neither side is protected in case of error, conflicts, non-payment, etc. Some consultants include a clause that damages are limited to the (monetary) size of the contract. Savvy clients will often not agree to that. I also recommend the standard docs from NSPE, if you do not want to spend the money on a lawyer to craft a contract tailored to you.

 

[woodman88]

The State of California requires a writen contract
"6749. Written Contracts
(a) A professional engineer shall use a written contract when contracting to provide professional engineering services to a client pursuant to this chapter. The written contract shall be executed by the professional engineer and the client, or his or her representative, prior to the professional engineer commencing work, unless the client knowingly states in writing that work may be commenced before the contract is executed. The written contract shall include, but not be limited to, all of the following:
(1) A description of the services to be provided to the client by the professional engineer.
(2) A description of any basis of compensation applicable to the contract, and the method of payment agreed upon by the parties.
(3) The name, address, and license or certificate number of the professional engineer, and the name and address of the client.
(4) A description of the procedure that the professional engineer and the client will use to accommodate additional services.
(5) A description of the procedure to be used by any party to terminate the contract.
(b) This section shall not apply to any of the following:
(1) Professional engineering services rendered by a professional engineer for which the client will not pay compensation...."

You can view the PE Act at

http://www.pels.ca.gov/licensees/laws.shtml

Garth Dreger PE - AZ Phoenix area
As EOR's we should take the responsibility to design our structures to support the components we allow in our design per that industry standards.

 

[SLTA]

Always, always, always have a signed contract. You won't get paid otherwise. Seriously. Give people a chance and they happily steal.

Do a search on this forum for threads I started - I asked a similar question about 2 years ago, and some folks were kind enough to share sample contracts with me.

If for some reason you can't find that thread, I can post my blank version of the contract and terms and conditions that I use for structural.

 

[zdas04]

In addition to all of that, my Professional Liability Insurance has a clause that the insurance company will not defend me in the event that I am sued by someone I did work for without a contract.

I've got 48 clients. I have contracts with 42 of them. The remaining 6 have a total billing over 9 years of under $5000. Mostly they are "can you tell me if the threads on this closure are strong enough for a runaway pig" kind of questions. I spend a couple of hours doing arithmetic, an hour writing it up and bill them for 3 hours work. If they don't pay I still make the car payment. Funny thing is that in 9 years I have only had 2 invoices go 120 days and even those got paid before 130 days. My clients have all paid, mostly promptly, with or without a contract.

It is still way better to have a contract. I have one that I paid to have prepared and have never had a single client willing to sign it. Not once. It isn't a bad contract. I would sign it as either the contractor or contractee, but everyone I work with has their own contract and don't want to consider mine. All of my work is industrial, no homeowners. If I was doing homeowner work I expect that my contract or one of the ones mentioned above would be used a lot.

David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering

"Belief" is the acceptance of an hypotheses in the absence of data.
"Prejudice" is having an opinion not supported by the preponderance of the data.
"Knowledge" is only found through the accumulation and analysis of data.

 

[Ron]

As others have noted, use contracts. The contract should be set up to protect YOUR ass(ets). Simple things like having a limitation on your liability are important clauses. Attached is a document that will help you understand a little about contracts and hopefully give you some insight on the important clauses.

 

[swertel]

Mostly they are "can you tell me if the threads on this closure are strong enough for a runaway pig" kind of questions.

Dang pigs. Always causing trouble with the oil wells. You just can't sub out a fence contractor without the proper engineering when it comes to herding pigs.

--Scott
www.wertel.pro

 

[zdas04]

You do have to watch those dang pigs every minute.