Designer, works director, project manager: who answers for cost

The first mistake is to treat the three roles as one. They have different sources, obligations and limits, summarised in the table.

Role	Remit on cost	Source	What it guarantees	What it does not guarantee
Designer	Design within the spending limit and estimate the cost of the design	Appointment; Decree-Law 1/2012, art. 9(4); line of decisions Cass. 8058/2023	A design that can actually be used; written information on foreseeable charges	The prices the market will offer at the time of the tender or the quotes
Works director, private	Check the works and the accounts on the client's behalf	Appointment; ANCE reading 2024	Technical control of the works and of the measurements	Decisions on prices and variations, without express delegation
Works director, public	Direct the works under the RUP, propose variations, keep the accounts	Legislative Decree 36/2023, art. 114; Annex II.14	Compliance with authorisations; answers for changes ordered or not authorised	Approval of variations, which lies with others
Project manager	Organise time, information and decisions	The contract alone	What the appointment provides	Nothing beyond the written scope

The progettista (the designer) owes a design that can be built. According to the line taken by the Corte di Cassazione (Cass. civ. no. 8058/2023, reported by BibLus and by the avvocato.it case-law digest), the designer "owes a result", a "design that can actually be used" (unofficial translation); if the work cannot be carried out because the design is wrong or inadequate, there is non-performance and the client may refuse payment (Civil Code, art. 1460). The decision concerned compliance with planning rules, not a budget: the sources examined contain no ruling that treats exceeding a spending limit as non-performance, nor any tolerance threshold.

The prudent reading for the budget runs through the contract. If the limite di spesa (spending limit) is written into the appointment, cost becomes part of the expected result and the client has grounds to ask for the design to be revised; if it is only oral, the discussion remains weak. That is why the article on writing the budget into the designer's appointment comes before everything else: a dated limit, the level of estimate expected at each stage, and a contractual obligation to rework the design if the estimate exceeds it.

The law places a duty to inform on the professional. With the tariffs of the regulated professions under the professional orders abolished (Decree-Law 1/2012, art. 9(1)), the professional must tell the client the degree of complexity of the assignment, "all useful information on the foreseeable charges" from appointment to completion, the details of the insurance policy and the fee, with an outline quote broken down by item, "mandatorily, in written or digital form" (art. 9(4)). For the client, this is the moment to ask, alongside the fee, for a first written indication of the cost of the works and of the ancillary costs.

The designer does not, however, guarantee market prices. An estimate, however accurate, describes the cost of the design at a given price date; it does not promise that contractors will offer those prices. What the client can reasonably expect is consistency between the estimate and the design delivered (quantities, items, declared prezzario, the price list used); no source examined makes the designer liable for market movements. When the client wants a second opinion on that consistency, the tool is the independent cost check, prepared by a third-party technical adviser on the same documents: it documents a gap, it does not replace the designer or the designer's responsibility.

For some clients, the fee is not the adjustment variable of the budget. Law no. 49 of 21 April 2023 on equo compenso (fair remuneration) applies to relationships with banks and insurers, with businesses that in the previous year had more than 50 workers or annual revenues above 10 million euros, and with the public administration. For these clients, cutting the designer's fee to make the figures add up is not an available lever.

In private work the direttore dei lavori (works director) represents the client on technical matters. This is the reading of the ANCE guide on variations in private contracts (April 2024): the director's decisions on prices, variations and new work do not bind the client, unless expressly delegated. The client may approve varianti (variations) in writing "also through their own works director (if specifically delegated to do so)". This is an industry reading, not the text of the Code, but it is consistent with art. 1659 of the Civil Code, under which authorisation of variations "must be proved in writing".

The practical consequence is twofold. For the client, an instruction given on site by the works director without delegation is not, in itself, a commitment to spend; for the contractor, it is a risk that tends to resurface as a payment claim. The solution is to write the delegation, or its absence, into the works director's appointment and into the building contract.

Four points are enough in the private works director's appointment: whether the director may authorise variations and up to what amount, per variation and cumulatively; the form of authorisation (written instruction with description, price and effect on time); the obligation to inform the client of every contractor request that affects the price; and how often the director delivers the progress report and the cost forecast. The cumulative count is decisive, because the one-sixth limit on variations ordered by the client under art. 1661 of the Civil Code is calculated, according to the same ANCE guide, by adding up all the variations.

In public work the works director is appointed before the tender. For works, the stazione appaltante (contracting authority) appoints the director "before the start of the award procedure", on the proposal of the RUP (responsabile unico del progetto, the single project manager), with a works direction office for complex projects (Legislative Decree 36/2023, art. 114(2)). The director's duties are those of Annex II.14 (Allegato II.14) (para. 5). As a rule the director is internal; failing that, the authority turns to other administrations or to an award "in the manner provided for by the code" (para. 6), whose rules, seen from the professional's side, are in the guide to the award of technical services.

On variations, the works director proposes but does not approve. The director proposes to the RUP the changes and variations during performance, with a reasoned report; the RUP assesses them and the contracting authority approves them (Annex II.14, art. 5(1) and (3)). New rates are drawn from the price lists or from new analyses agreed jointly between works director and contractor, and are approved by the RUP (para. 7). The works director may order alone only minor changes of detail that do not alter the amount, notifying the RUP in advance (para. 9).

And answers for what the director allows to happen. The works director answers for changes ordered or not authorised; for a change not ordered, reinstatement is at the contractor's expense (Annex II.14, art. 5(4) and (5)). In public work, this is the rule that protects the quadro economico (economic summary) from de facto variations.

The director keeps the accounts from which cost is read. The site diary, measurement books, accounts register and stato di avanzamento lavori (SAL, progress statement) are accounting documents under Annex II.14 (art. 12); the SAL is sent by the works director to the RUP, who issues the payment certificate. The works director therefore produces the data from which the RUP updates the final cost forecast.

In private work the project manager has no statutory basis. The project manager is not the works director, not the safety coordinator, and not the "responsabile dei lavori" (works manager) whom Legislative Decree 81/2008 places alongside the client for safety obligations (art. 90). The project manager is an adviser to the client, and their power over cost is whatever the appointment confers.

A project management appointment that serves the budget contains five clauses. The scope of the mandate (what the project manager may sign or instruct in the client's name); the decision threshold, above which every choice goes back to the client; the content of the periodic cost report (budget, committed, variations approved and under discussion, price revision, riserve or contractor claims, final forecast); the link with the works director, who remains the only channel for technical instructions to the contractor; and a ban on authorising variations without a written price.

The project manager's fee is a cost of the project. It must be provided for in the budget like the other technical costs, together with design, works direction, safety coordination and collaudo (acceptance testing). This article gives no amounts or fee percentages; for public works, the criteria for fees are covered in the guide to fees for technical services.

In private work the designer often also directs the works. The sources examined show no prohibition in private work, and continuity has advantages. The risk for the budget is that the same person estimates the design, checks its execution and assesses the variations arising from any gaps in their own design. The client can balance this combination with limited delegation on price and an independent estimate at key moments.

In public work the code separates those who verify from those who design and direct. Verification of the design is incompatible, for the same design, with design, safety coordination, works direction and acceptance testing (Legislative Decree 36/2023, art. 42(2)). It is a principle a private client can borrow: whoever checks the estimate should not be whoever prepared it.