INNOVATION May-June 2014

p ract i ce ma t ter s

Duty to Seal of an APEGBC Professional Gilbert J. Larocque, CD, P.Eng., LLB, Associate Director, Professional Practice

Along with the right to represent themselves as professionals, APEGBC members and licensees are granted the right to use a professional seal. The possession of an APEGBC seal, however, conveys much more than a right-to-title. The purpose of the proper and appropriate use of the seal is to authenticate documents prepared and delivered by APEGBC professionals. Aside from the issue of authentication, the seal is important because it is a visible commitment to the standards of the professions, and signifies that an APEGBC professional has accepted professional responsibility for a document. The Engineers and Geoscientists Act specifies that, upon receipt of a seal or stamp, a member or licensee “must use it, with signature and date, to seal or stamp estimates, specifications, reports, documents, plans or things that have been prepared and delivered by the member or licensee in the member’s or licensee’s professional capacity or that have been prepared and delivered under the member’s or licensee’s direct supervision.” As such, the Act imposes a prescriptive obligation that transcends other commitments and arrangements that non-professionals may otherwise consider acceptable. A client may specify in an agreement for services that sealed documents are not required. Parties cannot contract out of the law and, consequently, the The Letters of Assurance provided in Division C, Part 2 of the British Columbia Building Code and the Vancouver Building By-law are legal accountability documents intended to clearly identify the roles and responsibilities of the keys stakeholders in a build- ing construction project. Uniform, mandatory Letters of Assurance have been included as Schedules in the Building Code since December 1992. In addition to ascertaining the division of responsi- bilities between professionals—engineers and architects —the Letters of Assurance give assurance that a building has been designed and constructed in substantial compli- ance with the requirement of the applicable building code, and that the required professional obligations have been fulfilled. Confirming these assurances is the func- tion of Schedule C-A—Assurance of Coordination of Professional Field Review and Schedule C-B—Assurance of Professional Field Review and Compliance. For each building project, Schedule C-A and Schedules C-B (at the rate of one Schedule C-B for

APEGBC professional must nonetheless comply with the Act and seal documents prepared and delivered in a professional capacity. The application of the APEGBC seal with the signature and date is the confirmation process used to verify that a document has not been modified or tampered, and that it represents the original content for which the APEGBC professional, by sealing, signing and dating the document, has accepted professional responsibility. Some employers may see little or no point in having their APEGBC professional employees seal documents solely intended for internal use. Company policies and employment contracts do not trump the requirements of the Act . While it is neither a mark of warranty nor a guarantee, a seal should be considered as a mark of reliance, an indication that others, including colleagues and co-workers, can rely on the fact that an APEGBC professional held to high standards of knowledge, skill and ethical conduct, provided the opinions, judgments or designs in the sealed documents. The APEGBC Quality Management Guidelines – Use of the APEGBC Seal offer an in-depth analysis of the proper use of the APEGBC seal, including a table that provides guidance on the requirements to seal an extensive list of documents. These guidelines are available on the APEGBC website at apeg.bc.ca/Resources/ Professional-Practice/Quality-Management-Guidelines. each previously submitted Schedule B) must be sub- mitted by the applicable professionals after completion of the project but before an occupancy permit is issued or a final inspection is made by the authority having jurisdiction. Since the authorities having jurisdiction usually require Schedules A and B prior to issuing a building permit and any work commencing, it logi- cally follows that the issuance of Schedules C-A and C-B cannot precede the issuance of a building permit. As their name implies, Letters of Assurance provide the assurance of the professionals. They are not just a clerical exercise. While it may seem administratively expeditious to seal and date Schedules C-A and C-B in advance of a project being completed, such prac- tice is inappropriate. In particular, the sequencing of Schedule C-A and C-B must reflect the chronology of a building project and be issued and dated to indicate that the work was performed and the associated pro- fessional services provided after the required building permit were in place. v

Sequencing and Dating of Letters of Assurance Gilbert J. Larocque, CD, P.Eng., LLB, Associate Director, Professional Practice

Innovation is rerunning this article to include the author’s original language that is aligned with the BC Building Code . Members are asked to refer to this more current revision instead of the article that appeared in the March/April edition of Innovation .

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