Domestic Client Obligations

Under the CDM Regulation (2015) and the Building Safety (Act 2022) is our responsibility to inform the client of their duties.

The function of the roles of client, principal designer, and principal contractor under:

  • CDM Regulations is to manage the health and safety of workers and anyone around the site during building work
  • Building Safety Act is to make sure design and building work complies with Building Regulations

There are different competence requirements for the principal contractor and principal designer under CDM and under Building Safety Act. The client must appoint individuals or organisations to these roles.

The principal designer and principal contractor for CDM can also carry out these same roles for Building Safety Act. If they are the same, the client must confirm this in writing to those they appoint to the roles.

When the individuals or organisations in these roles are different under CDM and Building Safety Act, they need to work together and share relevant information.

CDM Duties

CDM 2015 makes a distinction between commercial clients and domestic clients. Client duties apply in full to commercial clients (for domestic clients the duties normally pass to other dutyholders).

A domestic client is any individual who has construction work carried out on their home, or the home of a family member, that is not done as part of any business. While CDM 2015 places client duties on commercial clients in full, such duties for domestic clients normally pass to:

  • the contractor, if it is a single contractor project, who must take on the legal duties of the client in addition to their own as contractor. In practice, this should involve little more than what they normally do in managing health and safety risks
  • the principal contractor, for projects with more than one contractor, who must take on the legal duties of the client in addition to their own as principal contractor. If the domestic client has not appointed a principal contractor, the client duties must be carried out by the contractor in control of the construction work

If a domestic client has appointed an architect (or other designer) on a project involving more than one contractor, they can ask them to manage the project and take on the client duties instead of the principal contractor. The designer then takes on the responsibilities of principal designer and must have a written agreement with the domestic client, confirming they have agreed (as principal designer) to take on the client duties as well as their own responsibilities.

Any designer in charge of coordinating and managing a project is assumed to be the principal designer. However, if they do not have a written agreement with the domestic client to confirm they are taking on the client duties, those duties automatically pass to the principal contractor.

Building Safety Act Obligations

A domestic client is any individual who has building work carried out on their home, or the home of a family member. The building work is done for domestic purposes, not for business purposes.

Managing the project

As the domestic client, you are in control of the project, which means you must:

  • allocate enough time and resource for the building work to comply with Building Regulations
  • appoint designers and contractors
  • co-operate with anyone working on, or in relation to the project, so everyone involved can comply with their duties and functions

You must provide building information you have, or would be reasonable for you to get, to designers and contractors working on the project. This includes information about:

  • known work that has been carried out
  • surveys carried out and kept from a mortgage application, or prior to any building work

Appointing designers and contractors

When there are multiple designers and contractors working on the project, as the domestic client you can appoint a:

  • principal designer to be in control of design work
  • principal contractor to be in control of the building work

If you do not appoint either a principal designer or principal contractor, then the:

  • designer in control of the design phase of the project is the principal designer
  • contractor in control of the construction phase of the project is the principal contractor