What is my role as a Domestic Client having work done in my house under the new Construction Design and Management (CDM) 2015?

8 years ago

What is my role as a Domestic Client having work done in my house under the new Construction Design and Management (CDM) 2015?

The Construction Design Management 2007 has been updated in 2015, the major change is the removal of the CDM Coordinator and the addition of the Principal Designer Roles and Responsibilities. We have reduced the text to 5 simple day to day questions ensuring the new regulation is well understood at from the domestic point of view with YouKwote.com explain.

Who is the Principal Designer?

The fundamental role of Principal Designer (PD) is the person or business that can influence, adjust and change the design eliminating foreseeable risks and putting controls in place to eliminate or reduce them, assuring the project can be delivered, maintaining adequate Health and Safety Standards to everyone directly and indirectly involved. Also the PD must collect relevant information to maintain and update the Health and Safety File, coordinating, cooperating with everyone involved and communicating with the Principal Contractor (PC) of the risks and control measures during construction.

What Domestic Clients must do?

Domestic Clients do not have to appoint a Principal Designer nor a Principal Contractor, also do not become the Principal Designer nor the Principal Contractor. Under the new CDM 2015 regulation, these roles are fulfilled by the contractor if only one or by the principal contractor when there is more than one or by the PD if the Client has appointed one in writing. The Client only has the general duty of care to ensure the PD and PC are Trained and Competent to do the work.

What happens when the Client doesn’t appoint the Principal Designer?

Domestic Clients normally do not appoint a PD, mainly due to the simple fact that they don’t know if they need to appoint one or they think that Contractors naturally become the PD. In cases where the Client doesn’t specifically appoint one, the Principal Designer becomes the person that will have an influence on the pre-construction, in other terms the professional doing the works.

What Traders working for Domestic Clients must do?

When contracted by Domestic Clients and if the Client did not appoint a Principal Designer, the Roles of Principal Contractor are transferred from the Client to the Trader when there is only one or to the Principal Contractor when there is more than 1 Contractor.

The Principal Contractor duties are to:

1. Manage the Project.

2. Construct, eliminating and reducing the health and safety risks to anyone for the duration of the works.

3. Provision of pre-construction information to everyone.

4. Draw a Construction Phase Plan.

5. Update and handover the Health and Safety File.

6. Ensure compliance with roles and duties to regulations.

7. Notify the Executive when projects last more than 30 working days and more than 20 workers working at any point or exceed 500 person days.

When there is more than 1 contractor what should the Client and Trader do?

The regulation states that when there are more than 1 contractor, a Principal Contractor must be appointed. Under the domestic Client rules, if the Client has not appointed anyone, the PD is the person responsible for the design element (eg Architect) and the PC will be the trader in control of the construction works.

In essence, the PD is the person that can influence the pre-construction stage and the Principal Contractor is the person or business in control of the Construction phase. These roles can be transferred to one person or organisation, under the New Construction Design and Management Regulation 2015, Domestic Clients do not have to appoint the Principal Designer nor the Principal Contractor, the general duties of making sure the Contractor is Trained and Competent remains, along with the provision of Health and Safety File information for the works to be carried out risk free. It is also clear, that the New CDM 2015 is taking away all the fundamental responsibilities from Domestic Clients. On projects where the Client appoints different contractors (eg scaffold, plasterer, plumber, roofer, decorator, carpenter, YouKwoteMe.com …) It would also be secure to suggest that the Principal Contractor is the organization that would have the major part of the works at that point in time so there could be projects where several contractors would have acted as a Principal Contractor

Pascal Baptista CEO and Founder of YouKwoteMe.com

18 April 2016

http://www.YouKwoteMe.com

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I tend to compare YouKwoteMe to eBay, Shiply, UShip on the way we perceive and we sell everything now, but looking back, where did use to sell what was no longer needed? Well we use to sell only things that was worth the time and effort spent. So now think about what do you do now each time you need work to be done at home or business, you need to search for a Trader online, yellow pages, news papers... from there you need to call them and try to describe what you want to be done where most of the times you will be also faced with all sorts of situations such as noisy background, no attention, no answer, no reply and facing difficult questions. Thereafter you schedule bookings, or try to, where you realise that only a few Traders will turn-up, you will be faced with all sorts of reactions, questions to other things. Only e few will be sending a quote or ask to view again and you are going to find out that the quotes have different values as the results of some builders having included items and the others not. Very confusing and time consuming process. With YouKwoteMe the only thing people have to do is to post their work online and builders will reverse bid on their job all online. There are 3 types of jobs that User can choose from, reverse bid where all traders without restrictions, the other option is reverse bid but traders will have to be approved by the user before bidding, and the other option is to submit Kwotes where traders submit kwotes to the user. If the User do not know how much will cost to do a job there can request for the starting bid to be submitted by traders first which as soon as one is accepted this will be the starting bidding value for the revers bid. During the auction, Traders can ask questions and user answer them online on the job in detail page, and traders can book appointments to see the job all via YouKwoteMe without the ned to disclose contact details. When the auction has ended, the user has 30 days to decide if they want to go ahead with the work and maintain the kwote, if they do, both will be bonded with the YouKwoteMe contract which includes any information that has been agreed and published during the auction, both are asked to do a daily diary log where they record progress with text and pictures and documents, mark payments made and received, also during this time Traders and Users can submit change requests which is a simple process where a request is submitted which highlights the important facts such as extra cost and/or time. Once the job is marked as completed from both they will then give feedback to each other. And the job is archived. In the event of having a dispute, both can raise one at any time, once one is raised a 30 days allowance is made for both to reach a deal, if one of the parties or the 30days lapsed is the time where YouKwoteMe team act in trying to understand and solve the problem. If we cannot solve it, it is then passed on to the relevant identities such as small claim court. Also it is worth notting that if a dispute is raised both profiles are being marked as having a dispute case open which increases the likelihood of being rejected for bids if wanting to bid on other jobs. We are working in partnering with a Home Improvement insurance company which are doing a credit check to 100% of our traders, if the check is ok and the documentation provided is ok and they have a valid CSCS card this is when they are awarded with the YouKwoteMe approved trader stamp.