Structural Engineer Building Sale Code Violation Reporting Obligation
O · Obligation
Individual
http://proethica.org/ontology/case/18#Structural_Engineer_Building_Sale_Code_Violation_Reporting_Obligation
Properties
Instance of
Case context
A structural engineer inspected a building about to be sold; was confidentially informed by the owner of mechanical and electrical code violations required to be rectified prior to sale; made only brief mention of the violations in the project report and did not report to any third party; the BER concluded a duty to report existed.
Compliance status
unmet
Confidence
0.9
Importance
high
Obligated party
Structural Engineer (Building Sale Inspector)
Obligation statement
The structural engineer who inspected the building prior to sale was obligated to report the potential mechanical and electrical code violations — of which the engineer had been confidentially informed by the owner — to the appropriate authority, notwithstanding the confidential nature of the communication, because the violations could constitute a safety violation affecting the public.
Temporal scope
Upon becoming aware of the code violations during the inspection engagement
Relationships
Source Evidence
Source text
A structural engineer inspected a building that was about to be sold, and was apprised confidentially by the owner that, although the building was structurally sound, there were mechanical and electrical code violations that had not been addressed and that were required to be rectified prior to sale of the building and use by the public.
Text references
A structural engineer inspected a building that was about to be sold, and was apprised confidentially by the owner that, although the building was structurally sound, there were mechanical and electrical code violations that had not been addressed and that were required to be rectified prior to sale of the building and use by the public.
The BER concluded that the engineer had a duty to report the potential code violations to the appropriate authority.
The structural engineer made only brief mention of the potential mechanical and electrical violations in the project report, and did not report the potential violations to any third party.
The structural engineer was not qualified to address mechanical and electrical engineering issues, but was aware that the code violations could constitute a safety violation.
TTL
@prefix case18: <http://proethica.org/ontology/case/18#> .
@prefix owl: <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#> .
@prefix proeth: <http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#> .
@prefix proeth-core: <http://proethica.org/ontology/core#> .
@prefix prov: <http://www.w3.org/ns/prov#> .
@prefix rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .
@prefix xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .
case18:Structural_Engineer_Building_Sale_Code_Violation_Reporting_Obligation a proeth:DutytoReport,
owl:NamedIndividual ;
rdfs:label "Structural Engineer Building Sale Code Violation Reporting Obligation" ;
proeth-core:competesWith case18:StructuralEngineer_ConfidentialityVsPublicSafetyObligation ;
proeth-core:prevailsOver case18:StructuralEngineer_ConfidentialityVsPublicSafetyObligation ;
proeth:casecontext "A structural engineer inspected a building about to be sold; was confidentially informed by the owner of mechanical and electrical code violations required to be rectified prior to sale; made only brief mention of the violations in the project report and did not report to any third party; the BER concluded a duty to report existed." ;
proeth:compliancestatus "unmet" ;
proeth:conceptCategory "Obligation" ;
proeth:confidence "0.9" ;
proeth:derivedFromPrinciple case18:Completeness_in_Responsive_Technical_Testimony_Invoked_By_Structural_Engineer_Building_Inspection ;
proeth:discoveredincase "18" ;
proeth:discoveredinpass "2" ;
proeth:discoveredinsection "discussion" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredat "2026-02-25T15:16:50.727676+00:00" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredincase "18" ;
proeth:generatedattime "2026-02-25T15:16:50.727676+00:00" ;
proeth:importance "high" ;
proeth:obligatedparty "Structural Engineer (Building Sale Inspector)" ;
proeth:obligationclass "Duty to Report" ;
proeth:obligationstatement "The structural engineer who inspected the building prior to sale was obligated to report the potential mechanical and electrical code violations — of which the engineer had been confidentially informed by the owner — to the appropriate authority, notwithstanding the confidential nature of the communication, because the violations could constitute a safety violation affecting the public." ;
proeth:sourcetext "A structural engineer inspected a building that was about to be sold, and was apprised confidentially by the owner that, although the building was structurally sound, there were mechanical and electrical code violations that had not been addressed and that were required to be rectified prior to sale of the building and use by the public." ;
proeth:temporalscope "Upon becoming aware of the code violations during the inspection engagement" ;
proeth:textreferences "A structural engineer inspected a building that was about to be sold, and was apprised confidentially by the owner that, although the building was structurally sound, there were mechanical and electrical code violations that had not been addressed and that were required to be rectified prior to sale of the building and use by the public.",
"The BER concluded that the engineer had a duty to report the potential code violations to the appropriate authority.",
"The structural engineer made only brief mention of the potential mechanical and electrical violations in the project report, and did not report the potential violations to any third party.",
"The structural engineer was not qualified to address mechanical and electrical engineering issues, but was aware that the code violations could constitute a safety violation." ;
proeth:wasattributedto "Case 18 Extraction" ;
prov:generatedAtTime "2026-02-25T15:25:32.292510"^^xsd:dateTime ;
prov:wasGeneratedBy "ProEthica Case 18 Extraction" .
Metadata
Extraction details
Discovered in case
18
Discovered in pass
2
Discovered in section
discussion
First discovered
2026-02-25T15:16:50.727676+00:00
First case
18
Generated
2026-02-25T15:16:50.727676+00:00
Attributed to
Case 18 Extraction
Generated
2026-02-25T15:25:32.292510
Generated by
ProEthica Case 18 Extraction