Namaskar and welcome once again to this series of lectures on Principles of Construction
Management, and today which is the 32nd lecture in this series, we will start a new module
: legal issues in construction management: An introduction.
Of course, through this module of let's say 4 or 5 or 6 lectures, we will not be able
to make lawyers out of the people who are trying to follow this course, but the interest
or the intent in this module will be to basically take you through some of the important legal
aspects of construction management.
So, this is the last module of our discussion on different aspects of the subject after
few introductory lectures at the outset of this series, on stakeholders and the most
general aspects we have touched base with planning and scheduling, financial issues
in economic aspects, cash flow, IRR and NPV, depreciation and so on; safety and quality
management and now it is the turn for legal aspects.
Sometimes I feel that in this series of lectures, we are sitting in a hexagonal or an octagonal
tower; let's say a 10 storeys or 20 storeys high and each of these sides of this octagon
or each side of the hexagon represents one of the facets of construction management and
we are opening windows on the different walls from different heights and trying to see whatever
goes on in that particular domain – whether it's the financial domain or it's the scheduling
and planning domain ; or it is the quality domain, the safety domain, and so on.
So, this time it is the turn of the legal domain.
So, we will be talking about legal issues.
Now, why we need to do that first of all you must understand that a modern construction
project often has many stakeholders and several agencies working at a construction site or
not only a site in the design, planning and execution of the project the roles, responsibilities,
the scope and risks for each of these parties need to be precisely defined.
Almost every decision has financial implications and this is something which is very important
that if decisions have financial implications, who should take those decisions, why should
those decisions be taken in a particular way, was the person required to really take those
decisions, all that has to have a basis and it cannot be oral documents or oral understandings.
That has to be written down in a document and that is why we come to contracts as you
have seen in this course.
Each agency has its own shareholders to whom the office of that agency is responsible.
So, if there are multiple agencies, any agency cannot simply accede to the request of another
agency which involves commitment of resources of that agency because the shareholders or
the stakeholders of that agency would say that; well, this was not called for and you
did not do justice to our investment in your company.
So, these are the kind of issues that a company keeps in mind and that is why they have to
be very importantly guarded by the employees who are signing contracts.
So, it is a matter of identifying with the company, trying to look after the interest
of the company.
Also, projects often last very long and officers of the agencies change, and this only emphasizes
the need for accurate record of decisions, changes in scope, and so on.
Since it could be 3, 4, 5 years that a project goes on, or maybe sometimes a little longer,
officers may change.
Especially when it comes to warranty periods, the defect liability periods it could be even
much longer and therefore, what is exactly the defect liability, what exactly are the
terms under which a certain thing will be repaired at the company’s cost, that has
to be precisely laid out and that is why we need written documentation.Written documentation
is basically a legal frame work.
Non-compliance by one agency could have implications for other parties now that is why we have
to understand that which party has to do what and only then we can actually identify who
did not comply with their roles and responsibilities and who is at fault.The agreements should
be enforceable in a court of law because at times it may happen that the companies may
not yield to nonverbal or unofficial or informal negotiations.
So, it will require the court of law to enforce a certain agreement.
Therefore those agreements have to be drafted in a manner that they will be enforceable
in a court of law and that is why we have to have systems by which the agreements that
are drawn up are drawn up as if they are legal documents.
Now, nobody asks an engineer to draw those documents, but the engineers are involved
in the vetting of those documents, they are involved in the execution of those documents
and if you are involved in the execution of a document you had better been involved in
the process of drawing it up whether you draft them; whether you prepare the first draft
or not.You should know exactly what has gone on in that document, that is why we have to
have some understanding of legal issues as far as construction managers are concerned.
Each party should know the rules, specifications etc. that are applicable.
So, these are some of the things that came to my mind and I thought I will share with
you at the outset of this module on legal issues in construction management.
Moving further, as far as this module is concerned, our discussion will largely focus on introduction
to building bylaws, contracting and a good contract and dispute management
and some special topics like the types of contract, interesting terms and subcontractor
management.
Now introduction to the building bylaws is; obviously, not in the same league as far as
contracting dispute management type of contracts is concerned.
Building bylaws is an interesting and perhaps; the very first brush with the law where an
engineer is dealing with the civic responsibilities or the municipal requirements which are basically
professional issues laid down in order to ensure a proper functioning society.
So, today’s discussion would largely be confined to some of the building bye laws.
and we will talk about contracting and a good contractor so on in subsequent discussions
that we will have in this module.
I will just spend a minute on these interesting terms.
We take up some interesting terminology from legal parlance and try to discuss it a little
bit because that will give you the flavor that like any specialized subject, any professional
subject, law also has its own very specialized vocabulary.
For example, when we talk of resistance, in electrical engineering terminology, it has
a different meaning compared to let's say a civil disobedience; similarly slump as far
concrete is concerned has a very different meaning than slump in the economic regime.
So, that is why we will just pick up some terms from the legal parlance which are commonly
used as far as construction management is concerned and go over them in a brief lecture.
Continuing our discussion today lets come to the elements of by laws.
And building bye laws are legal tools to regulate coverage, height, building bulk, architectural
design and construction aspects of buildings.
So, as to achieve orderly development of an area; this ‘orderly development of an area’
is the keyword.
We cannot as a society allow haphazard development of residential areas, commercial areas, industrial
areas, educational institutions, hospitals without concern to the neighborhood.
There have to be certain rules, which will be imposed on what should be the environment
of a hospital.
If there is an existing hospital, what should be the rules that will govern in creating
other structures in the neighborhood.
Similarly, if there is an industry, what should be the rules that govern the neighboring structures.
There is something which is very obvious when we talk in terms of, for example an airport.
There will have to be a long corridor which will have restrictions as far as the height
of the building is concerned.
So, this is the kind of legal requirements not necessarily in a very strict legal sense,
but in a municipal sense where the society, through documents like the national building
code, imposes certain restrictions on functional aspects, design aspects, and architectural
aspects of building in building construction.
I thought it will be an interesting exposure for us to go through some of the very simple
terms and try to understand them.
And of course, if you are interested, you can always refer to the national building
code, another document which will give you more insight.
So, as far as the building bylaw is concerned, the objectives are to promote planned urban
development, to ensure health, safety and comfort of public, to protect buildings against
fire, earthquake, noise, structural failures and other hazards, to provide guidelines to
architects and engineers for designing and construction of buildings and to maintain
a balance between built and natural environment.
So, this is something which is the stated objectives of having building bylaws; obviously,
the society cannot allow indiscriminate creation of structures of buildings in the environment
in an urban area.
Primarily, of course, these building bylaws govern the construction in urban areas.
The first term that I wanted to introduce to you is the ‘building line’.
So, if you look at this picture on the right hand side, we have a plot which is defined
by this line.
So, we have a plot here, a plot here and a plot here.
this plot on the last side is adjacent to a public road and now once it comes to this
kind of a set up, there is this concept of a building line which is defined here.
So, this is the building line.
The building line is the line up to which the plinth of a building adjoining a street
or an extension of a street or on a future street may lawfully extend and include the
lines prescribed if any in any scheme and/ or development plan.
The building line may change from time to time as decided by the authority.
This could be the municipal cooperation or any other designated authority responsible
for drawing up these kind of guidelines and implementing them as far as conformity to
land use plan.
Now, this is something which is important to ensure as far as the building bylaws is
concerned.
The first thing that comes to mind is the land use plan.
Somebody has to have approved that out of these total area; this area will be marked
for purpose A, this area is marked for purpose B, this area is marked for purpose C.
So, now we have to see that if I propose a structure which has the use which is primarily
A in nature, it should not be located here, it should be located here.
So, these are the kind of things that we have to ensure that the proposed structure conforms
to the land use plan.
So, if it is being proposed in a particular site does it conform to the proposed?
Does it conform to the agreed and decided land use for that particular area?
The use of building premises should be in conformity with the zonal development plan.
In other words, the buildings for residential, commercial and other purpose should be appropriately
laid out as per an approved zonal or master plan.
Now, coming to another topic – the means of access.
All buildings and plots should abut on a private or public means of access like a street ora
road.
. We cannot have a building which is closed from all sides.
It is like a landlocked country.
So, we cannot have a building which does not have access to a public road.
So, in this particular case the access is shown here because on the other sides there
are plots of other people.
So, there has to be an access to a public road which has been duly formed.
Then there is this concept of setbacks.
These are defined as the minimum distance measured between the front rear and side of
the building and the respective plot boundaries.
The distances and provisions of open spaces are dependent on the plot size and building
construction restricted to the lines of setback.
So, in this particular diagram that we see for the same layout, where there are three
plots on three sides and this plot has access from here, the front set back, the rear setback
and the side setback which is this distance here, this distance here, and this distance
here.
These are the setbacks which have to be preserved when we are trying to do the construction
in the building.
So, the building construction itself is confined to only this area notwithstanding the fact
that the plot is so much.
So, we have a plot area and the building area is confined to a smaller percentage defined
in terms of these set backs: the front setback, the side setback and the rear set back and
of course, we have the access that has to be provided.
So, this setback basically makes a building an independent entity from the other buildings.
Moving further; there are rules that govern lighting and ventilation.
For example, there are rooms: a room should have provisions for windows and ventilators
opening directly into external air or into an interior open space.
Different norms for the day lighting and ventilation are prescribed for different rooms.
The minimum size requirements for interior open spaces are prescribed as per the building
height.
Obviously, we can imagine that lighting and ventilation requirements would be different
for schools, hospitals, residential buildings, industrial or office buildings for that matter.
So, depending on the kind of building that is being planned or that is been constructed
the lighting and ventilation requirements are laid out.
It cannot be left to individual architects, or individual planners to say that well I
am happy with the half a meter by half a meter window in this room.
There has to be a minimum that is laid out and that is what is defined here.
So, it is like saying that we have always talked in terms of standardization in this
course – we say that we cannot leave it to the individual engineers to decide whether
concrete having an average strength of 24 MPa conforms to or does not conform to M20
concrete.
There are clear cut procedures and standards which define whether or not a concrete is
acceptable.
Similarly the building bylaws in a manner of speaking, they lay down the rules and regulations
for whether a building is acceptable from a planning point of view.
Whether it is acceptable from a bylaws point of view and that is why we have this concept
of ‘approval’ of a plan.
So, the plan is first drawn up and somebody looks at it and approves and checks that it
meets the requirements in terms of lighting, ventilation, firefighting, setbacks, and so
on and so forth.
That list is exhaustive and of course, it is not the intention here to go through that
entire list.
Yet another term that we come across in this bylaws is what is called ‘ground coverage’.
That is the ground area covered immediately above the plinth level covered by the building,
but does not include the space covered by garden, rockery, well and well structures,
plant nursery, water pool, swimming pool (if uncovered), and so on.
Drainage, culverts, conduits, catch pit, gully pit, chamber, gutter and the like, compound
wall, gate, slide swing door, canopy areas covered by the chajja and similar projections
and staircases which are uncovered and open at least on three sides and also open to the
sky.
So, this is basically just an explanation of what is the ground coverage and how it
is to be defined.
So, these are terms which architects must understand.
And they try to ensure the compliance with this in actual practice essentially boils
down to ground coverage being defined in terms of the ratio of the ground floor of the building
to the total area.
It is calculated as a percentage of the total area and the permissible percentage of ground
coverage depends on the land use and plot size.
The dimensions of ground coverage are marked by setbacks.
So, when we say something like this, that is the permissible percentage of ground coverage
is dependent on land use and plot size.
Now if we have a plot which is this big; whether the ground coverage allowed is only this much,
or for the same plot size we can cover so much, would depend on what kind of a building
is being planned.
If it were a school; for example, we would say that well there should be at least a play
ground and therefore the ground coverage allowed for a school would be smaller than certain
other buildings.
So, that is why we have to keep in mind these kinds of rules which have been formulated
and are obviously, subject to change from time to time and from place to place.
Moving further, there is another very interesting concept called the FAR or the Floor Area Ratio.
Now what this term essentially means is, it is the quotient obtained by dividing a combined
covered area that is plinth area on all floors excepting areas specifically exempted under
these regulations by the total area of the plot.
FAR as a percentage is basically, if you look at this picture, is on the ground floor we
have B as the area where we are constructing, on the next floor we have constructed only
C, and this area here has been left out.
So, the floor area ratio as far as this particular structure is concerned would be B plus C divided
by A. So, we are talking of the entire covered area on all the floors and then dividing it
by the plot area.
So, it is like ground coverage and floor area ratio are different because the ground coverage
essentially would only be B upon A in a manner of speaking, whereas the floor area ratio
would be B plus C upon A; the floor area ratio is; obviously, governed by a lot of thought
processes.
So, the aspects that govern in specifying a floor area ratio are , occupancy class,
types of construction, width of the street fronting the building and the traffic load,
locality where the building is proposed and the density, parking facilities, local firefighting
facilities, water supply and drainage facilities, and so on.
So, basically what we are saying is that if in this plot of land we are going to make
a building which is having a ground coverage of so much, but it has let us say 10 floors.
The number of occupants depends on the number of floors, the number of occupants would depend
on the total area, basically the area at one floor multiplied by the number of floors.
Now if this is the total number of people which are going to be living there.
Now if the total people living there or the total number of people occupying that space
is related to the total area, we have to cater as far as the open area is concerned, to their
parking needs, to their circulation needs, and so on.
That is why it is important to ensure that the floor area ratio is properly defined and
complied with.
Then there are of course, height limits for a structure.
The height and the number of storeys are related to FAR of course; in some states and the bylaws
there maximum height of a building is dependent on the width of the street abutting the building.
Following appurtenant structures are not included in height restrictions unless the aggregate
area of such structures exceeds one third of the area of the roof of the building upon
which they are erected, roof tank and their supports, mumty not exceeding three meters
in height, chimneys, parapet walls and architectural features not exceeding 1.2 meters in height,
ventilating air conditioning and lift rooms and similar service equipment.
So, you must, reading some of these sentences like this, and sentences like this, gives
us a flavor of the legalese.
It gives the flavor of the fact that it is a document which has not been necessarily
written by an engineer – it has been written by a person who would be interested to actually
try to ensure compliance with each and every aspect of it.
When we are talking of the height of a building basically it's very simple – that okay this
is a building and this is its height.
Now, what happens if somebody erects a small tower here or there is a lift room somewhere
here.
Because ultimately there will be a lift which will be operating through the floors and we
may have to construct a lift room on the top.
Now will this height be taken, or, this height be taken.
So, now, what is being said here is that the height is restricted to this H and these structures
will not be counted in that height provided that, as far as the plan of the roof is concerned,
such structures whatever they are roof tank and their support and so on, the sum of these
is not greater than one third the area of the roof.
So, this is the kind of provision that we have and I am leaving it to you as an assignment
to find out that when we talk of the highest structures in India, or, highest structures
in the world, whether they have such towers or appurtenant structure on the roofs, and
whether they have been counted in defining or measuring the height of the building.
Moving further, there is this issue of parking norms.
An enclosed or an unenclosed, covered or open area, sufficient in size to park vehicles.There
has to be a norm which would govern that okay we have to provide for a certain amount of
parking space.
The parking space should be served by a driveway connecting them to a street or an alley and
permitting ingress and egress of vehicles.
It is governed by factors of land use and built up area.
Obviously, parking norms are specified in terms of ECS which is Equivalent Car Space
and ECS is defined as the minimum parking space including circulation required by a
vehicle.
Obviously, what we are looking at is that if this is the vehicle and if you measure
the vehicle, this will have a breadth and a length.
So, it is not only the vehicle itself which is important, but also there has to be space
around this vehicle.
So, that it can manoeuvre itself into position, the driver can come out, something can be
loaded onto that vehicle, and so on.
So, for that the ECS or equivalent car space has been given depending upon whether we are
talking in terms of an open parking, or parking on the ground floor, or parking in the basement.
Depending on where the parking is, there is an ECS and how many ECSs you should provide
for a building is again given in the norms depending on the land use and depending on
the type of the building.
So, with this I think we have gone through a certain amount of terms and phrases which
govern the functional design of a building in terms of the setbacks, in terms of the
height, the floor area ratio, ground coverage, parking norms, and so on.
So, with this we come to a close for discussion today.
As far as the references are concerned, possibly the best reference that you can have is the
national building code, and I would request you to compare some of these provisions that
are given in the Indian national code with provisions in other codes or other similar
provisions and I look forward to seeing you in subsequent discussions on legal aspects
of construction.
Thank you.