Contractual and ownership aspects for BIM

Building Information Modelling (BIM) and the resultant digital models are becoming gradually a commonplace practice in Finnish building profession trough the large building companies. In spite of that the architects, building designers and civil engineering are developing their own models. The key challenge appears to be the lack of jurisprudence and contract models, which do not encompass the term BIM. The digital models of buildings are products
based on creativity and their ownership is treated with the Copyright Act. The economical and moral rights belong to the constructor, developer or civil engineering. The contracts should be included with writing “BIM life cycle” special stipulations. This paper presents the proactive contracting for BIM based building construction. It seems that the proactive negotiation of contracts is providing interesting possibilities for the total BIM life cycle. The proactive
negotiation of contracts can connect preventive jurisprudence and quality management. The proactive negotiation also uses contracts for risk downsizing and conflict prevention. The purposed amendments and contract modifications are as a necessity considered for having a main role for integrated BIM operations in the Finnish building profession. The BIM based operations are becoming gradually more common but most of all knowledge sharing and
cooperation are needed between the parliamentarians and building professionals.