BIM for Facilities Management: Potential Legal Issues and Opportunities

Abstract

There is growing awareness and use of building information modeling (BIM) for construction project delivery and operation of facilities. Evidence of successful project delivery with BIM abounds, and large facility owners are increasingly adopting BIM project delivery. BIM has shown increased efficiency in integrating the people, processes, and technology involved in facilities management. Concurrently, owners are turning toward leveraging the sophisticated technology and processes afforded by BIM to derive more value from their facilities. This involves navigating complex organizational and technical issues, leading to a shift from traditional practices. However, there are still uncertainties regarding the legal aspects of applying BIM to facilities management, because the domain is still in an incipient stage of maturity both in academic research and practice. This paper provides an overview of the potential legal issues and opportunities associated with the use of BIM for facilities management. Using a combination of a literature review and a case study of a large capital improvement project, legal issues arising from uncertainty and lack of definite contract instruments are presented and discussed. The paper discusses issues relating to liability/risk sharing and management, ownership of data and model, compensation, information exchange, interoperability, right to rely on model data, and insurance. Recommendations are made with regard to how owners can use American Institute of Architects (AIA) digital practice documents and ConsensusDocs 301 to facilitate the use of BIM for facilities management (FM). Further suggestions are made for amendment of such digital contract addenda to support BIM for FM.