Construction Law in the 21st Century
6
Page 91
Fitness for purpose obligations
Windmills or giants?
Page 91
Introduction
There are few expressions in the construction law field that produce a reaction of anxiety more than the words ‘fitness for purpose’ (or ‘FFP’). For a contractor or designer to be subject to an FFP obligation connotes a requirement of a higher level of performance, or indeed strict liability, when compared with an obligation to act with reasonable skill and care. All construction professionals will accept that should be legally accountable for their own mistakes. But the idea of being legally accountable without having done anything wrong, perhaps in circumstances where a person could not have acted any differently, produces discomfiture to an alarming degree.1