Professional Engineer’s Poor Design Of Home Cost $800K

As a professional engineer, clients put a lot of trust in you to build safe buildings. This is especially true for homes. Nobody wants to live in an unsafe home that is not structurally sound.

Unfortunately, this happened to a Rhode Island resident. The home was so defective that it had to be demolished, costing a whopping $800,000.

The client hired a well-known professional engineer to help design and oversee the construction of his home. The engineer had promised to be onsite at least every two weeks. The engineer was licensed and in good standing, so the client hired him in June 2021.

Problems started to show up around five months later. When the first floor was framed, you could bounce on the floor almost like a trampoline, there was so much deflection. However, the professional engineer denied there was a problem. He claimed that once the walls were up and the windows were in place, things would get better. The contractor, on the other hand, warned the client that the engineering design was flawed.

Once the second floor started to get framed, the professional engineer came to the jobsite and admitted that he specified the wrong structural members. The client got two independent engineering reports that showed the home was structurally flawed.

Because of this, the house had to be demolished. Other engineers analyzed the professional engineer’s work and stated that the only reasonable solution was to demolish the home and start over with appropriate structural members. Both determined that the home was structurally unsound.

The house was demolished, costing roughly $800,000. The client filed a complaint against the professional engineer with the Division of Business Regulation. The client has also taken civil legal action.

The client did not know that the professional engineer had been sanctioned by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. In one disciplinary action, the engineer admitted to gross incompetence in the practice of engineering as part of his suspension plea. That was his second disciplinary violation in Massachusetts.

He had been suspended earlier for one year after he fraudulently approved a certification of compliance for fire sprinkler systems that he never inspected. While the professional engineer was under suspension, he was having his engineering license renewed and failed to disclose that he had been disciplined in another state. The state knew about the professional engineer’s second suspension and they still renewed his license.

Keep Your License With Help From a Tampa Professional Engineers Licensing Lawyer

Professional engineers need to be careful with their work. Shoddy work can lead to structural defects in a home or other building, making it unsafe.

Licensing issues can affect your engineering career. Seek legal help from a Tampa professional engineers licensing lawyer from The Law Offices of David P. Rankin, P.A. I have represented more than 100 professional engineers before the Florida Board of Professional Engineers. To schedule a consultation, fill out the online form or call (813) 968-6633.

Source:

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