18 October 2024

New Building Regulations increase the need for principal designers on all construction projects

By Self Build Zone
principal designer

Guest Article: ContractStore

While the main risk is with high-rise buildings, since October 2023, new Building Regulations require every client for a new building to appoint a  ‘principal designer’ (and ‘principal contractor’), whose duties are to ensure that the design and construction of buildings comply with the relevant requirements of the Building Regulations.

After the Grenfell fire killed 72 people, the Government brought in new legislation designed to improve building safety. While the main risk is with high rise buildings, since October 2023 new Building Regulations require every client for  a new building to appoint a  ‘principal designer’ (and ‘principal contractor’), whose duties are to ensure that the design and construction of buildings comply with the relevant requirements of the Building Regulations.

It was already necessary under the CDM (Construction Design and Management) Regulations 2015, to appoint a principal designer to plan, manage, monitor and coordinate health and safety in the preconstruction phase of a project and on a domestic project.

So now you have to have two appointments of principal designer.  And those appointments must be made before building work starts.

On a domestic project, if there is only one designer, they must fulfil the duties of the CDM Regulations and the Building Regulations principal designer.  The client can be treated as complying with this requirement by appointing the principal designer under the CDM regulations as  the principal designer for the Building Regulations. If no principal designer is appointed the client will have those duties.

The architect or other designer of a building is likely to be appointed to both  principal designer roles. As a result, ContractStore has developed a template which can be used for either or both principal designer appointments.

This is the first standard form of appointment to be published combining the two principal designer roles. It will be of particular interest to architects who are usually the best (if not the only) qualified professional consultant engaged on a project  to perform the duties of principal designer.

The Principal Designer Appointment is written in plain English with 8 pages of Terms & Conditions plus schedules to detail the services and fees. The services schedule is closely aligned with the CDM & Building Regulations which identify the principal designer’s duties in some detail.

In common with other ContractStore documents, the template is in MS Word and can be downloaded from contractstore.com. The download also comes with explanatory notes.

The template is suitable for use both by developers and other client (including self-builders)  as well as by the professional consultant engaged as principal designer on a project.

About ContractStore

ContractStore supplies some 250 different contract templates for business from its website www.contractstore.com .  They include more than 35 contract templates for use in the construction industry, including a suite of documents for self-builders in the UK (and a parallel suite for Ireland).

All ContractStore documents are drafted by solicitors and other lawyers who specialise in the relevant area of law. ContractStore was established in 2002. The Principal Designer Appointment was drafted by Giles Dixon, a solicitor specialising in construction and engineering contracts.

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