AIA commissioning services agreement updated

Earlier this year, the AIA published C203-2017, Standard Form of Consultant’s Services: Commissioning. The document has been significantly updated to reflect changes in the industry that have taken place since the prior version. The changes include:

1. provisions describing the consultant’s role to help prepare the owner’s project requirements;
2. detailed description of the consultant’s commissioning plan;
3. updated provisions related to commissioning-related design reviews; and
4. updated provisions related to the consultant’s role in commissioning during the construction phase of the project.

In developing the agreement form, the AIA Documents Committee recognized that professionals from a variety of backgrounds perform commissioning services. Thus, C203 is no longer written as an architect’s scope of services in the B-Series of documents. Instead, C203 is silent as to the professional background of the entity performing the commissioning services and is categorized as a consultant document in the C-Series. An owner can still use C203 to hire an architect to perform commissioning services, but C203 can also be used to hire professionals from other backgrounds.

As with all AIA agreements and forms, more information is available from the AIA Contract Documents program website.