With all construction projects there will be an element of risk, but with a proper team of professionals advising the parties, the risks should be virtually eliminated.

Of course a team of professionals costs the client dearly and quite often corners are cut to reduce project costs, or the client is unaware of the risks. Most designers are more than competent and their designs and associated calculations can be checked and double checked and are rarely wrong. However it is often the temporary works aspects that cause the problems with the more complex structural schemes.

 

Many engineering practices will not design temporary works, and so contractors are asked to deal with this aspect. It is this aspect of many projects that gives rise to the potentially catastrophic problems of structural damage and even building collapse.

 

Well supported excavations rarely fail and contiguous piling around a site perimeter as free cantilevers, or when the floor slab cast, additionally braces the piles, and then retainment and props installed ready for a concrete pour.

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The Act allows for an advising engineer to be engaged and asked to consider the building owner's proposals and relevant design assumptions, and risks, and perhaps movement monitoring of adjacent structures will be recommended. 

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Additionally an adjoining owner may claim 'security for expenses' under section 12(1) of the Act.