Dangers In Property Week: CDM Early,CDM Often

Following on from our very popular guest blog series so far,this week we are tackling some of the dangers to be found in property. Today’s blog is from Su Butcher.

CDM Early, CDM Often

(Or, why botch the job yourself? Get a professional in to do it for you!)

The Construction Design and Management (CDM) Regulations 2007 are a bit of a mouthful, but they boil down to some really simple ideas. One might even say they are obvious, but it’s surprising how few property developers use them to their advantage. The simple ideas are:

1. Get competent people to do the job
2. Give them enough time to do it, and
3. Give them the information they need.

If you’re having building work done, unless you are a domestic client (it is your own home) then you have responsibilities under the regulations, and even if you’re a domestic client, it’s worth taking the same professional, mental attitude to your project.

A good professional will

• Assess the site and building at the start, identifying areas where problems might arise;
• Gather information; on services, rights of way, wildlife (thanks Paul!);
• Understand what the client wants, before they put pen to paper.
• Talk to the other professionals on the job and plan out how to get the best result.
• Keep this same proactive, communicative attitude throughout the job.

The reason why this is important?

Because it will save you MONEY.

CDM is about a competently designed, competently managed construction project. On such a project, health and safety takes care of itself, from the Quantity Surveyor being able to give you a realistic budget for the job, to the tenant being able to operate the heating system.

Here are some examples.

We have a client who has a building we are converting into a luxury home. It’s a former school building in a small town, with no garden, car park or playground we could use as a construction compound.

Several months before we plan to start the works on site we contacted the Local Authority and they agreed that the contractors could use half the road and a footpath as a construction compound. Why would they do this?

Because it is reasonable.

Negotiating with the council enabled us to give them what they needed, whilst saving the client the cost of an alternative, less practical solution.

On the same project we asked the man from EDF Energy on site to look at a substation next to the building, because we needed to build scaffold over it and wanted to check if that was OK. When on site he noticed the electricity cables crossing the road to the building and said, ‘Oh that’s ok, I’ll get them shrouded’. There is time for it to be done within EDF’s schedule, and therefore at no cost, whereas if we’d not asked him, EDF would charge us through the nose to get someone to do it in a few days notice.

Even on a domestic project it makes sense

We have a client who is converting a listed building into a home – a domestic project, therefore he has no responsibilities under the CDM Regulations. But his consultants do, so we are considering how the work might be done safely. As part of the project his team are constructing a new bridge over a nearby river. This will be craned in from the nearby meadow, which is crossed by power lines. See where we’re going here? The cost of employing a CDM Co-ordinator to advise him on this part of the job will be £500. On a £350,000 build this is minor, but it could be the best insurance policy he ever takes out.

So before you get building work done, check out your responsibilities under the CDM Regs, and save yourself some money.

You can download a useful guide to a Client’s Responsibilities under the CDM Regs here:

What Construction Work Done Safely? A quick guide for clients on the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007

And other useful documents are available from the HSE’s Construction Mini-site.

Su Butcher is Practice Manager of Barefoot & Gilles, Essex Architects who pride themselves on being business-minded, so they can see the added value in getting the job right first time. You can find Su Butcher,here on linked In. She is also an active twitter member. ( @SuButcher)

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