Project type
CDM for landlords and property companies
Work on a rented property is connected with a business, which makes you a commercial client under CDM 2015 whatever the building looks like.
Short answer
A domestic client is someone having work done on their own home, not in connection with a business. A rental property is part of a business, so a landlord is a commercial client. The consequence is significant: the full client duties in regulation 4 stay with you, none of them transfer to your contractor, and if you appoint no principal designer, regulation 5(3) leaves those duties with you too.
Why this catches people out
Because the building is a house and the work looks domestic. A landlord replacing a roof on a terraced house is doing the same physical job as the owner occupier next door, and is in a completely different position under CDM 2015.
| Owner occupier | Landlord | |
|---|---|---|
| Client type | Domestic | Commercial |
| Client duties | Regulation 7(1) moves them to the contractor | Stay with you in full |
| If no principal designer is appointed | Regulation 7(2) gives the role to the designer in control of the pre-construction phase | Regulation 5(3) leaves the duties with you |
| Notification duty | Moves to the contractor | Yours |
What you actually have to do
- Make suitable arrangements for managing the project
Regulation 4(1), including allocating sufficient time and resources, and keeping them under review.
- Appoint in writing
Regulation 5: a principal designer and a principal contractor wherever more than one contractor is involved.
- Provide pre-construction information
Regulation 4(4). For a landlord this often includes asbestos information you already hold as a duty holder under separate regulations.
- Check before work starts
Regulation 4(5): a construction phase plan drawn up, and Schedule 2 welfare facilities provided.
- Keep the health and safety file
And make it available to anyone who needs it, and pass it on if you sell.
Portfolio work
Where the same kinds of works recur across a portfolio, most of the information gathering is repeatable and only the property specific part changes. That is exactly the shape our structured forms are built for, and it is worth talking about as a standing arrangement rather than project by project. Get in touch.
What it costs
Priced from the same published schedule as any other project, by project type and contract value. The fee schedule, or price your project.
Common questions
What about work to communal areas of a block I own?
Same position. It is connected with a business, so you are a commercial client with the full regulation 4 duties, and the fact that the occupiers are residential does not change that.
Does an HMO or a holiday let count?
Both are connected with a business, so both put you in the commercial client position.
I am having work done on a house I own but do not live in yet.
If the work is not being done in connection with a business and it is to be your home, you are likely to be a domestic client. If it is an investment or a letting, you are not. Where it is genuinely uncertain it is worth asking rather than assuming.
Price it in about two minutes
Answer a few questions about the works and see the fixed fee. Nothing is contracted and no money is taken online.
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