Engineering, Environmental Firms Draft Standard Contract Language

The National Engineering and Environmental Due Diligence Association (NEEDDA) has drafted uniform contract templates available for use on engineering and environmental due diligence contracts.

NEEDDA formed in December 2012. Its seven founding members are Partner Engineering and Science, EMG, Nova Consulting, IVI International, AEI Consultants, Dominion Due Diligence Group (D3G) and PM Environmental. Clients of the founding member firms include lenders, investors, brokers, attorneys and other real estate transaction parties.

As a first act, NEEDDA says it’s taking steps to promote greater consistency in the practices of due diligence consultants with standardized contract documents including a master services agreement, terms and conditions, a reliance letter, and a non-reliance letter. These documents form the agreements between consultants and their clients to provide due diligence reports such as property condition assessments, phase I environmental site assessments, and seismic probable maximum loss reports.

The documents are available for public review at the association’s website.

Similar to contract documents available from the American Institute of Architects, NEEDDA’s industry-accepted contract templates are intended to reduce the time and money spent by both consultants and their clients on developing contract language and the legal review that occurs with each new contractual relationship.

NEEDDA says its future plans include providing education, publications, conferences, research and accreditation and certification programs. Membership is open to high-ranking or C-level executives of firms that provide both engineering and environmental due diligence and meet the membership criteria.