What does an owner's representative do?

The scope follows the course of the project. Entry is possible in any phase; the earlier, the greater the leverage, because the most expensive decisions fall at the start: site, planning permission, procurement model, choice of designers.

How much of this is commissioned is a matter of agreement. Full mandates across all four phases are common, and so are single mandates: reviewing a general contractor agreement before signature, running a procurement, or taking over a project that has gone off course.

Project control is the narrower term, often used interchangeably in practice. The owner's representative goes further: they do not only control, they decide within the agreed authority and act for the owner towards designers, contractors and authorities.

Site supervision is something else. It checks execution on site. It does not check whether the award was competitive, whether a change order is justified or whether the design itself serves the owner. The German Federal Court of Justice demands heightened attention in site supervision when construction follows someone else's design (judgment of 6 July 2000, VII ZR 82/98); whoever supervises their own design checks themselves.

The general contractor owes a finished building for a lump sum and carries the execution risk. Whatever the specification leaves open is claimable as a change order, which is its right under sections 650b and 650c BGB. Especially with a general contractor, the owner therefore needs someone on their side of the table. We set out the comparison in General contractor or separate trades?

Owner's representation is not a service under the HOAI, the German fee scale for architects and engineers. The HOAI describes design services; control on the owner's side does not appear in it. The scope of services is provided by AHO booklet no. 9, “Project management in the construction and real estate industry”, in its sixth edition since May 2025. Its fee proposals are non-binding, experience-based reference values and apply only where the contract refers to them (section 1 para. 1).

Legally, the owner's representative is the owner's agent. Whether the agreement is classified as a contract for work or for services depends on the agreed scope; the Federal Court of Justice treats the project control agreement as a contract for work where result-related tasks characterise it (judgment of 10 June 1999, VII ZR 215/98). Externally, the representative acts under a power of attorney whose extent the agreement defines: from pure advice to the release of payments and change orders up to an agreed limit.

They are liable for their own performance: for errors in control, review and advice. Design errors remain with the designer, execution defects with the contractor. Professional indemnity insurance is standard and should be evidenced in the agreement.

We develop our own projects with our own capital at risk, and we review a specification for a client the way we review our own. That is the difference from a pure advisory service: we know what an overlooked change order costs in the end, because we have paid for one ourselves.

We provide owner's representation in Munich and Bavaria for developers, investors, asset holders, family offices and public clients, as a full mandate or in individual phases. If your organisation lacks a project manager for a specific scheme, external project management is faster than hiring.