On a building project the same person may design the works, instruct changes to them and certify what is owed for them. Knowing which hat each participant is wearing, and which contract they hold, is what tells you who to claim against when something fails.
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The roles on a construction project are usually described as a list of job titles. That is not the useful way to look at them. What matters when a problem arises is which contract each participant holds, what they undertook in it, and whether they were acting for the employer or exercising an independent function at the moment the thing went wrong. Those three points decide who is answerable, and they are the points most often confused.
The employer
The employer, also called the client, the owner or the developer, is the party for whom the works are built. Its principal obligations are to pay in accordance with the contract, to give the contractor possession of the site, and to supply information, instructions and decisions when the contract or the programme requires them.
The last of these is where employers create liability for themselves. Late information, late access and late decisions are the classic grounds on which a contractor claims an extension of time and prolongation costs, and they are entirely within the employer's control.
The main contractor
The contractor undertakes to carry out and complete the works described in the contract documents, by the completion date, using materials and workmanship of the standard specified. On a traditional project it is not answerable for the design, only for building what it was given. Under design and build it takes on both.
The contractor is responsible to the employer for the whole of the works, including the parts carried out by its subcontractors. That is the point of the structure: the employer has one party to hold responsible, and the contractor passes the risk down its own chain.
One check belongs to the employer before any of that engages. Under section 25 of Law 29(I)/2001, nobody may award or permit the execution of building or technical works by a person who is not a registered contractor, or who does not hold an annual licence of the class and category the works belong to; and under section 30(1) an agreement made in breach of that is void. A void contract has no completion date, no specified standard of workmanship and no one to hold responsible for the subcontractors. The register and the annual licence are checked before signature, and the anatomy of the rule, including the three month cure in section 30(2), is set out in the structure of a Cyprus construction project.
Subcontractors and suppliers
Subcontractors carry out defined packages of the work, and suppliers provide materials and equipment. Their contracts are with the contractor, not with the employer, and the ordinary consequence is that the employer has no direct claim against them however clearly a specialist trade caused the problem.
Where the employer wants a direct route, it must be created expressly, by a collateral warranty, a direct appointment, a manufacturer's guarantee or a parent company guarantee. This is worth settling at the outset, because the moment the employer needs it is the moment nobody will grant it.
The architect
The architect is usually engaged by the employer to design the works and translate the brief into drawings and specifications. On many projects the appointment extends further, to obtaining permits, preparing tender documents, advising on the selection of the contractor and administering the building contract while the works proceed.
That last function is the one to watch. Where the building contract appoints the architect or engineer to issue instructions, grant extensions of time and certify payment, that person is doing two different things. In designing the building and advising the employer, they act under their appointment with the employer. In certifying, they are exercising a function that the building contract, to which they are not a party, confers on them. The two sets of documents say different things about what is required of them, so read both rather than assuming that one governs the other.
The engineer
The civil or structural engineer is responsible for the structural design and for the technical elements within its scope, and works alongside the architect so that the design can actually be built. The engineer may be appointed directly by the employer or engaged through another consultant, and that distinction determines who can sue the engineer if the structure proves inadequate.
The quantity surveyor
The quantity surveyor deals with the money: cost estimates and budgets before the contract, the bill of quantities, the valuation of work properly executed for interim payment purposes, and the valuation of variations. Where a project is measured rather than lump sum, the quantity surveyor's records are frequently the best evidence available of what was actually built.
Site supervision and the permit holder
Cyprus projects also involve statutory functions that sit outside the commercial contracts. Under section 9Α of the Streets and Buildings Regulation Law, Cap. 96, a permit is not implemented unless the competent authority is satisfied that the applicant has duly appointed a supervising engineer to supervise the execution of the works. The owner must inform that engineer in writing, and in good time, of when work under the permit is to start and of any suspension of it. The supervising engineer, once appointed, must not allow work to begin before satisfying himself that the permit exists, and must supervise the project at all its stages.
These duties are created by the statute, not by the building contract, and a contract that is silent about who performs them does not remove them.
Working out who to claim against
When something fails, work through it in this order.
Identify what was breached: a design obligation, a workmanship obligation, a payment obligation or a supervision obligation.
Identify the contract that contains that obligation and the parties to it.
Check whether that party was acting as principal, as somebody's agent, or as a certifier under the building contract.
Check the dispute resolution clause in that contract, because it may differ from the clause in the contract next to it in the chain.
Check when the cause of action accrued against that party, since the six-year period under the Limitation of Actions Law 66(I)/2012 runs separately on each contract.
More than one party is often liable for the same defect, in which case the choice of defendant becomes a question of evidence and recoverability rather than of blame.
What to send us
The building contract, the consultant appointments or fee letters, any subcontracts, warranties or guarantees, and the permit documents naming the supervising professionals. Fee letters are the documents most often missing, and they are usually the ones that decide a claim against a consultant.
This work sits within our construction practice, and the contract chain described here is what our construction lawyers in Cyprus review at the outset of a project. How the contracts fit together is set out in The Legal Structure of a Cyprus Construction Project, and what each type of claim has to prove is covered in Construction Contract Claims in Cyprus.
Questions we are asked
Is the employer answerable for its own consultants’ delays?
The employer owes an obligation to supply information, instructions and decisions when the contract or the programme requires them, and a decision not given on time is behind a large share of extension of time applications. A consultant’s slowness is, in that sense, the employer’s exposure rather than the contractor’s.
Is the contractor answerable for its subcontractors?
To the employer, yes. The contractor controls the means and the method unless the contract says otherwise, and carries the risk of the subcontractors it engaged. That is the point of the structure: one party is answerable for the whole of the works, and passes the risk down its own chain.
What does the supervising engineer bring that the others do not?
Obligations that come from legislation rather than from the contract alone, and that do not disappear because somebody else took over the work in practice. That distinction matters when an accident or a defect is traced back to supervision.
Why does it matter which contract each party on a project holds?
Because that, and not the job title, decides who is answerable when something fails. What matters when a problem arises is which contract each participant holds, what they undertook in it, and whether they were acting for the employer or exercising an independent function at the moment the thing went wrong.
Can the employer claim directly against a subcontractor?
Ordinarily not. Subcontractors and suppliers contract with the contractor rather than with the employer, so the employer has no direct claim against them however clearly a specialist trade caused the problem. Where the employer wants a direct route it has to be created expressly, by a collateral warranty, a direct appointment, a manufacturer's guarantee or a parent company guarantee, and that is worth settling at the outset, because the moment the employer needs it is the moment nobody will grant it.
Who is responsible for the design?
It depends on the procurement route. On a traditional project the contractor undertakes to carry out and complete the works described in the contract documents, by the completion date and to the standard specified, and is not answerable for the design, only for building what it was given. Under design and build it takes on both. Either way the contractor is responsible to the employer for the whole of the works, including the parts carried out by its subcontractors, which is the point of the structure: the employer has one party to hold responsible and the contractor passes the risk down its own chain.
The architect designed the building and also certifies payment. Is that a conflict?
It is two different functions under two different documents, and the distinction is the one to watch. In designing the building and advising the employer the architect acts under the appointment with the employer. In issuing instructions, granting extensions of time and certifying payment, that person exercises a function conferred by the building contract, to which they are not a party. The two sets of documents say different things about what is required, so both have to be read rather than assuming one governs the other.
How do employers create liability for themselves?
Through the obligation most easily overlooked: supplying information, instructions and decisions when the contract or the programme requires them. Late information, late access and late decisions are the classic grounds on which a contractor claims an extension of time and prolongation costs, and they are entirely within the employer's control.
Who can sue the engineer if the structure proves inadequate?
That turns on how the engineer was engaged. The civil or structural engineer is responsible for the structural design and the technical elements within its scope, and may be appointed directly by the employer or engaged through another consultant; the distinction decides who holds the contract and therefore who can bring the claim.
Related Reading
Construction Disputes in Cyprus
Professional Negligence Claims in Cyprus
This article is for general information only and does not constitute legal advice. Laws and their application can change, and individual circumstances differ. For advice on your own matter, contact Klitos Platis at klitos@kleanthousplatis.com or telephone +357 22 680 330.
Klitos Platis
Advocate, Partner
Kleanthous & Platis LLC, Nicosia · Revised 4 August 2026
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