27 Jan 2026
Your signature as an engineer is valuable, so how do you protect yourself and manage client expectations?
Engineering New Zealand was recently made aware of a serious situation involving a consent application, a Chartered Professional Engineer, a client and a signature.
Initially, a council had spotted something odd with a producer statement signed by a Chartered Professional Engineer and they contacted Engineering New Zealand with their concerns. Following a flurry of emails and phone calls, the mystery was solved. But the news was not good. The engineer had signed the producer statement, but their client had, without the engineer’s knowledge or consent, modified the signed statement and submitted it to the council in support of a consent application. When the issue was detected, the consent was declined.
Engineers, and in particular Chartered Professional Engineers, are prominent in the construction sector. This is due in large part to their technical expertise. However, in a more administrative sense, their signatures provide access to the all-important council stamp of approval, making them valuable indeed.
It is that value that sometimes makes them targets, and that’s a risk of which all engineers should be aware. At the extreme end, we have the well-canvassed case of Jonathan Beau (JB) Hall. He forged signatures of Chartered Professional Engineers to perpetrate the largest scale fraud the sentencing judge had ever heard of, earning him a prison sentence of four years and six months plus a hefty fine. At the other end, we have a more mundane, but still serious issue: commodification.
In this recent situation, there was no evidence that the client had any sinister intentions behind modifying the signed document. Additionally, the engineer was absolved of any wrongdoing or competency concerns. However, it has raised serious questions over this practice and how widespread it could be. Particularly chilling, the last thing the engineer said to me and the Registrar was: “I think there may be more instances like this as this is the second time that I have become aware of someone altering my documents.”
We haven’t delved further into this specific case, but a potential explanation is that the client felt entitled to edit a document they had paid for. Admittedly, this is speculation, but it reflects an attitude we sometimes see in the complaints space. A member of the public calls us complaining that an engineer they have paid to provide a producer statement has refused to provide that statement. The usual response from the engineer is that as a professional, they are not prepared to provide their sign off.
In simple terms, a producer statement is a promise to a council that an engineer stakes their professional reputation on. In it, an engineer states that they believe on reasonable grounds the engineering work complies or will comply with the Building Code and that the persons who have undertaken it have the necessary competency to do so. It also attracts liability to the signatory if something goes wrong and can attract a disciplinary outcome if not signed in good faith. Councils rely on these statements when providing their approval of building works.
To a lay client, however, it is frequently considered just another document they need to get for the council’s tick. Something they need to pay for, and something that can be owned after payment. A commodity.
Engineering New Zealand has been working on an online producer statement system that will help reduce the risk of altered documents and JB Hall-style signature fraud. In the meantime, engineers are advised to have conversations with their clients. Manage their expectations and make it clear that they have purchased your services and your expertise, not your signature. Be helpful – if you are not prepared to provide sign off on their project, help the client to get the project to a state where you are able to sign. Ultimately though, they should know they cannot purchase a signed producer statement if you as the signatory aren’t prepared to stand behind it. Nor can they modify any producer statement that you have already signed.
Izaac Sugrue is Legal Team Leader at Te Ao Rangahau.
This article was first published in the December 2025 issue of EG magazine.
