Guide to Using the RIBA Professional Services Contracts 2018 - Other - Page 30
Contract terms
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The Regulations impose statutory duties on designers and contractors on all
projects. They now impose statutory duties on both business and domestic clients
although the latter passes their responsibilities to other duty holders. The Client now
has to appoint a Principal Designer, which replaces the role of CDM Coordinator.
Clients primarily have the responsibility to make suitable arrangements for managing
their project, to enable those carrying it out to manage health and safety risks in a
proportionate way. These arrangements include:
• appointing the contractors and designers to the project (including the Principal
Designer and Principal Contractor on projects involving more than one contractor)
while making sure they have the skills, knowledge, experience and organisational
capability
• allowing sufficient time and resources (including financial) for each stage of the
project
• making sure that any Principal Designer and Principal Contractor appointed carry
out their duties in managing the project
• providing information about the project that is already in the client’s possession,
or which is reasonably obtainable by or on behalf of the client, to the other duty
holders
• making sure suitable welfare facilities are provided for the duration of the
construction work.
Before making an appointment, a Client must take reasonable steps to ensure that
the Architect/Consultant is competent, and the Architect/Consultant should not
accept an appointment unless they are competent to carry out the services.
On commercial projects the RIBA recommends that the Principal Designer is
appointed under a separate and distinct contract to that for architectural services to
reflect the different legal status and liability of the Principal Designer role. However,
when working for a domestic client the RIBA recommends that the Principal
Designer role is included in the appointment for architectural services.
While the CDM Regulations 2015 place Client duties on business clients in full, the
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 who is in control of the
construction work.
If a domestic client has appointed an Architect/Consultant (or other Designer) as
Principal 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 Architect/Consultant 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. The RIBA recommends that its
members only include the client’s duties in their appointment if they have experience
in carrying out these duties and have notified their professional indemnity insurance
provider, or otherwise let these duties fall to the contractor or principal contractor.
Client’s rights and obligations
The Client has various obligations under the Contract irrespective of whether they are
business or domestic. Section 2 covers the Client’s obligations and authority relevant
to the Architect/Consultant’s performance of the Services, including responsibilities
for other persons providing services to the project such as:
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