Reasonable skill and care
Reasonable skill and care is the professional standard a consultant is normally held to (competent conduct), lower than a fitness-for-purpose guarantee of the result.
Ask Chalkline about this →Reasonable skill and care is the professional liability standard a designer, engineer, or other consultant is normally held to: they must do the job with the competence expected of a reasonably skilled member of their profession. It is a conduct standard, not an outcome guarantee. If the consultant works competently and the result still falls short, they have met the standard; they are liable only if they were negligent. The standard is a common-law one, mirrored in the Australian Consumer Law guarantee that services be supplied with due care and skill (s 60).
It is a lower standard than fitness for purpose, which guarantees the result will achieve the stated purpose regardless of how carefully the work was done. The distinction is money. Professional indemnity (PI) policies typically cover only the reasonable-skill-and-care standard, so a fitness-for-purpose obligation may not be insured at all. A clause that quietly lifts a consultant to a fitness-for-purpose guarantee can leave a real liability sitting uninsured.
This is the central fight in a novation deed. The head contract usually requires the builder to deliver a building fit for its intended purpose, and the builder wants to flow that obligation down to the novated consultant. The consultant’s baseline is reasonable skill and care, so accepting fitness for purpose is a real uplift in risk: consultants commonly agree only with a fee increase and a higher PI limit, and some refuse, leaving the builder to carry and price the gap. See novation of design and design and construct.
Also known as: Reasonable care and skill, professional standard of care, due care and skill.
Category: Contracts / Professional liability.
Related
See also
- Design and construct
- Novation
- Professional indemnity insurance for builders
- Professional indemnity insurance
References
- Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) Sch 2 (Australian Consumer Law) ss 60-61, AustLII (verified 2026-05-30)
- Australian Contract Law: consumer guarantees (verified 2026-05-30)
Last updated: 2026-05-30. Verified: 2026-05-30. Quarterly review for currency.