The Ten-Year Guarantee of the Contractor and the Engineer on Ensuring the Durability of the Building in the System of Applying the Saudi Building Code: A Comparative Study

Abstract

This study aims to clarify the personal civil liability of the contractor and engineer for the damage and demolition in buildings and facilities and the defects that may appear during the warranty period. The general rules in civil liability were not sufficient in construction and building. During a warrant on the building, the negative result may appear as complete or partial demolition or defects that threaten its safety and durability. This changes the purpose for which it was established, whether in the national economy or compromising public security and public tranquillity. This also varies from a threat to individuals and their money. This pushed the legislators, including the Saudi regulator, to decide on a set of exceptional guarantees characterized by strictness consistent with the tragedies resulting from the collapse of buildings in whole or in part, from multiple aspects and effects. The most important of these guarantees is the decimal responsibility or the decimal guarantee that the Saudi regulator has imposed in Article (8) of the Saudi Building Code application system and clarified by Article (29) of the Executive Regulations for the Saudi Building Code Application System. We have adopted in the research: the descriptive, analytical, and comparative approach of the relevant texts in the system of application of the Saudi building code on which the study is focused, which is the case of the responsibility of the contractor and the engineer, for any demolition or defect in the construction after the issuance of the occupancy certificate, compared to some Arab legislation, which is the Egyptian Jordanian and Bahraini. This study discusses the nature of the decimal guarantee and its duration. Then, we focus on the provisions of the decimal guarantee. The study recommended that the Saudi regulator stipulates the warranty claim against the contractor and engineer. The lawsuit occurs after three years have passed since the demolition occurred or the defect was discovered, contrary to what was mentioned in the Saudi Civil Transactions System, which requires ten years to pass, because the ten-year liability is a private liability. The solidarity between the contractor and the engineer should not be limited to joint liability but should extend to include solidarity in the guarantee. 
 
 Received: 16 December 2023 / Accepted: 19 February 2024 / Published: 5 March 2024