In a scenario where the contractor hits a water main, one of the first actions taken to identify who’s fault it was would be to check if there is a drawing in place showing these services with relatively adequate precision. It would then be the contractor’s responsibility to work carefully in the proximity of the services and make sure he doesn’t interrupt them. If there was no such drawings and the contractor had no idea there would be services underneath, the liability largely lies with the client.

The client should do his best to provide all essential information of existing services on site to help the contractor carry out his work. However there are still many occasions where the contractor comes across various issues that could have been prevented, had the right information been provided in time and adequately.