Uptake of 2025 RIAI contract ‘tentative’
Lawyers at Byrne Wallace Shields (BWS) say that the construction industry has been “characteristically tentative” in its use of a new construction contract launched by the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (RIAI) late last year.
The RIAI Construction Contract 2025 is a new set of standard contracts designed to make construction projects in Ireland more collaborative, balanced, and efficient.
The 2025 contracts replace the 2017 editions of the RIAI Articles of Agreement.
In a note on its website, BWS says that many industry participants are continuing to base their contract forms on the 2017 edition, preferring to include provisions from the 2025 form in bespoke amendments.
Clearer layout
“However, there are signs of increasing engagement with the new form, and this is only likely to accelerate,” the firm’s lawyers add.
Among the main changes in the 2025 contract, according to the RIAI, is a clearer and more logical layout, with the old ‘appendix’ moved to the front of the document and renamed ‘contract particulars’, making key information easier to find.
Other updates include:
- New provisions for contractor’s design and professional indemnity insurance,
- Limitation on contractor’s liability,
- Clearer rules for selected and nominated sub-contractors, and
- Specific timescales for notices, giving both parties greater certainty.