By DC Engineers | Architecture, Engineering & Construction
Any foreign client who has engaged a contractor in Greece and assumed that the project was professionally supervised because an architect was involved in the design is working with a potentially significant misunderstanding. In Greek construction law, the role of the supervising engineer is a distinct legal obligation, separate from both the design team and the contractor, carrying specific professional and regulatory responsibilities that no other party in the construction process can fulfil or substitute.
Understanding this role — what it requires, who can perform it, and what happens when it is absent or inadequately performed — is directly relevant to any foreign client commissioning construction or significant renovation in Greece.
What the Role Requires
The supervising engineer is a licensed professional engineer (civil, structural, or in certain cases architectural, depending on the scope of works) appointed specifically to oversee the construction of a permitted project and to certify that what is built corresponds to the approved building permit. This obligation arises directly from Greek construction law and applies to all permitted works — new builds, extensions, structural alterations, and significant renovation works that have received a formal building permit.
The supervising engineer must maintain a site supervision log (Ημερολόγιο Εργοταξίου), recording visits, observations, instructions, and deviations. The log is a formal legal document. On completion of the works, the supervising engineer issues a completion certificate (Βεβαίωση Περάτωσης) certifying that the works were executed in accordance with the approved permit. Without this certificate, the building lacks a fundamental document required for utility connections, for establishing legal status, and for any future transaction.
The supervising engineer is not the same person as the designer. A project may be designed by an architect and a structural engineer; the supervising role requires a separate appointment, typically of a civil or structural engineer, specifically tasked with on-site oversight. In practice, particularly on smaller projects, the structural engineer may take on the supervising role — but this must be a deliberate appointment, not an assumption.
What the Role Is Not
The supervising engineer is not a project manager. The role does not encompass client communication, contractor appointment, budget management, program oversight, or procurement. These functions require separate professional engagement, typically through a project manager or a design-and-management practice.
The supervising engineer is not a contractor's representative. The contractor is responsible for executing the works; the supervising engineer is responsible for verifying that the execution meets the design and permit standards. The two functions are explicitly separated. A contractor who tells a client that supervision is included in the build contract — unless a separately qualified and appointed engineer is named — is describing something that does not satisfy the legal requirement.
The supervising engineer is not optional. The obligation is statutory. Works undertaken without a properly appointed and active supervising engineer are not in compliance with Greek building regulations, regardless of their physical quality. The completion certificate issued at the end of the project carries the supervising engineer's professional stamp and personal liability; no licensed engineer will issue this document for works they did not actually supervise.
Why This Matters for Foreign Clients
Foreign clients commissioning construction in Greece — particularly those who are not physically present during the works — are dependent on the supervising engineer as the primary independent check on what is being built on their behalf. In the absence of a client representative on site, the supervising engineer's log and the completion certification are the principal documentary record that the works were executed to the required standard.
A project in which the supervising role is nominal — in which an engineer's stamp appears on the permit but visits to site are infrequent, the log is incomplete, and deviations from the design are neither recorded nor corrected — is a project in which the client's legal and practical protections have been eroded. This is not a hypothetical risk. It is a recognized pattern on projects where professional oversight has been treated as a regulatory formality rather than a substantive function.
For clients managing a construction project from outside Greece, the most important professional appointment — after the design team — is an engaged and active supervising engineer with a genuine presence on the site at appropriate stages of the works: foundation inspection, structural frame completion, services installations, and pre-handover review. The completion certificate at the end of the project should be the conclusion of a documented oversight process, not its substitute.
An integrated AEC practice that provides both design and supervision services provides the foreign client with a single point of professional accountability across the full project lifecycle. The design is prepared with knowledge of how it will be supervised; the supervision is carried out with knowledge of the design intent. The gap between these two functions — which is where most construction problems in Greece occur — is closed by professional continuity.
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