Who does the PE owe duties to if the contractor pays the fee?
Under the PE Code, a PE owes complete fidelity to the employer or client, which is whoever engaged them. The PE must also act with prime regard to the public interest and, as a QP, report contraventions to the Commissioner of Building Control. If the contractor engaged the PE, the contractor is the client. The owner may have no direct contract with the engineer at all, which limits the owner's ability to instruct, question or rely on the engineer.
From the RRD Field Guide, checked against the sources cited in PE Endorsement in Singapore: What It Legally Means and Why Engineer Independence Matters. General information, not advice for your project.
The fuller picture
A PE endorsement is a statutory signature: only a Professional Engineer registered with the PEB and holding a practising certificate in force may sign plans or certificates that the law requires a PE to sign, and documents signed otherwise are invalid. The endorsing PE owes duties to the client, the regulator and the public, which is why owners are better served appointing and paying the engineer directly.
More questions on this topic
- What does it mean when drawings are 'PE-endorsed'?
- How do I check that an engineer is a real, practising PE?
- Is it illegal for a contractor to arrange the PE for my works?
- What is the difference between a PE and a Qualified Person (QP)?
- Can the same PE design and supervise my works?
- Can a PE give a contractor a commission for referring work?
- What happens if my QP stops acting halfway through the works?