London
CDM principal designer in Chelsea
The statutory CDM 2015 principal designer appointment, taken as a standalone service on Chelsea projects. Fixed fees, priced online, with the whole appointment handled through short structured forms and one site visit.
Short answer
If your project in Chelsea will involve more than one contractor, including subcontracted trades that never overlap, regulation 5 of CDM 2015 requires you to appoint a CDM principal designer in writing before construction begins. ClearCDM takes that appointment on residential and smaller commercial projects, on a fixed fee from £750 plus VAT. If nobody is appointed on a domestic project, regulation 7(2) puts the role on the designer in control of the pre-construction phase, whether or not anyone has discussed it.
Projects we take on in Chelsea
- Refurbishment and structural alteration of period houses
- Rear and side return extensions
- Loft conversions
- Flat and apartment refurbishment in converted or purpose built buildings
- Basement and lower ground floor works
- Small commercial and retail fit out
What tends to matter on Chelsea projects
Seventy three per cent of the Royal Borough is within a conservation area, and Chelsea is squarely inside that coverage. The stock is predominantly terraced, much of it with historic lightwells and railings that the council's own guidance treats as part of the special character of the street.
- Basements are governed by a specific policy. Local plan policy CL7 sets the limits of basement development, dealing with character and appearance, listed buildings, structural stability, trees, gardens, ecology and drainage, and the basements supplementary planning document adds detail. A CDM appointment on a basement project here is largely about temporary works, sequence and the neighbouring structure.
- Party wall interfaces everywhere. Terraced stock means adjoining owners on both sides, and often above and below where a house has been divided.
- Historic lightwells and railings. Which are both a heritage constraint and a genuine access and edge protection question during the works.
- Occupied refurbishment. A great deal of the work is done around people who are still living in the building or next to it.
What we checked for this page is listed under sources at the foot. Where a statement could not be checked against the council or Historic England it is not on the page, and none of this says every project in Chelsea involves all of it.
How the appointment runs
Five steps, short forms, one site visit. The appointment in writing, structured forms to everybody involved, a visit to record the building as it is, the design risks coordinated, and the pre-construction information issued to whoever is pricing and building before work starts. The full process, and what the role covers.
Fees
Fixed fees from £750 plus VAT, read off a published schedule rather than taken as a percentage of your build. The same starting fees apply wherever the project is, and the figure on your confirmed quote is the figure you are invoiced: there is no expenses line and nothing is added afterwards. The fee schedule.
This is the CDM role, not the Building Regulations one
Since October 2023 England has had a second principal designer role, under Part 2A of the Building Regulations 2010. It is a separate appointment about designing to meet the Building Regulations, and ClearCDM does not provide it. Most projects that need one need both. The difference in full.
Pre-construction information for a Chelsea building
The pack for a project here tends to be short and specific. What earns its place is the handful of things nobody could work out from the drawings: the asbestos position for a building of this age, what is actually loadbearing and in what order it can come out, where the services run, who is on the other side of each wall, whether anyone is living in the building while it is opened up, and how the scaffold and the skip reach the work.
How we build the pack, or generate a checklist for your own project.
Questions we get asked in Chelsea
Are your fees different for a Chelsea project?
No. The published starting fees are the same wherever the project is, and the figure on your confirmed quote is the figure you are invoiced. We work from Bristol and do not have a London office, which we would rather say than pretend otherwise.
Who appoints the principal designer on a Chelsea flat refurbishment?
The client, in writing, wherever more than one contractor is involved. If the flat is your own home you are a domestic client and regulation 7 moves most of your other duties to the principal contractor. If you are a landlord, the work is connected with a business and the full client duties in regulation 4 stay with you.
Nearby
Sources
- CDM 2015, regulation 5 legislation.gov.uk
- CDM 2015, regulation 7 legislation.gov.uk
- HSE: principal designers, roles and responsibilities hse.gov.uk
- Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: conservation areas 73 per cent of the borough
- Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: basements supplementary planning document, April 2016 local plan policy CL7
Price your Chelsea project
A few questions about the works and you have a fixed fee in about two minutes, and the figure you see is the figure you are invoiced.
Get an instant quote →Not sure yet? check whether the appointment is required at all.