Responsibilities for PE Leaving Firm

[Hobieyaker]

I recently left a firm I had been with for many years.

What are my responsibilities/obligations concerning projects under construction for which was the Engineer of Record?

What are the obligations of my former employer? At this point in time I have received no notice that any of my work has been adopted by or become the responsibility of another engineer.
-Notification of clients? My responsibility or theirs?
-Do I have any responsibility to follow thru with client? Building owner??

Thanks in advance for any wisdom you may be able to offer!!

Hobieyaker

 

[SteelPE]

Were you a licensed PE..... And were the only licensed person at the firm?

 

[Hobieyaker]

I am a licensed PE.
There are many others in the firm.

 

[tbuelna]

You are only responsible for anything you signed-off on. If a problem comes up in the future and can be traced back to something you validated, don't worry, your former employer will make sure to contact you about it. And as a professional engineer, you should be ready to defend any of your decisions to a review board investigating issues with the related product or design. But I would not think you have any obligation to notify clients of your former employer of your change in employment status, unless you had some separate contractual agreement with that customer.

As a licensed PE, even if you are working as an employee of a company, I believe you still can potentially be held legally liable for what you approve. But you'll have to check the details of your employment contract with your former employer. Does the employment contract specifically state that they will assume all liability resulting from your work while under their employ?

I'm not a licensed PE, but I do design engineering work on a contract basis. And my customers typically require me to provide my own professional liability insurance coverage, even though other engineers employed by the companies always review and approve my work.

 

[charliealphabravo]

In some areas you are required to notify the building jurisdiction that you are no longer providing engineering services for an on-going construction project.

Engineering corporations can be sloppy in the way they identify EOR and track document versions. Some poor sap may be pressed to sign questionable revisions to a drawing that you prepared. I have always kept a log of every seal I applied and the date it was applied and the number of copies. Drawings ideally have a version block on each page. You don't want the company riding your coat tails after you leave.

I think the main thing is to document where you left off on each of your open projects so that the responsibility is clear if the project goes south after your involvement. It's hard to anticipate and prepare for all the possible things that can go wrong when a project is handed off to someone else.

Good luck.

 

[IRstuff]

You should have "tail coverage" in your liability insurance for past projects at previous companies.

TTFN
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