The new Construction Design and Management Regulations 2015 (CDM) are expected to come into force from 6th April 2015. Previously, if you were a domestic client having building work done, this would have little impact on you, as you would probably expect the builder to take responsibility for health and safety on the project. Now, once the new legislation is in place, more clients are likely to fall under the banner of “non-domestic client” and subject to a raft of additional health and safety responsibilities.For example, if you are contemplating having a workshop or garden office built at the end of your garden, or perhaps you are a residential landlord refitting a rental property, then under this new legislation you will be a “non-domestic client” and subject to the increased health and safety duties that that entails.
As a rule – if you are getting a business income from the works, then you will be having the works done as part of a commercial enterprise and you will be deemed a non-domestic client.
CDM Regulations Explained: Why Are the Changes Being Made?
Statistically there are more injuries and fatalities on smaller, previously unregulated building projects than on larger ones. The HSE has decided to address this issue by requiring all projects to have someone overseeing health, safety and welfare, in both the pre-start and construction phases.
Accordingly, the aim of the CDM Regs. 2015 is to place increased responsibility on the three main parties in a building project – the client, the designer and the builder. The practical impact of these regulations is that non-domestic clients will now have even more legal duties in respect of health and safety on site and more clients will fall into the non-domestic category.
One of the new duties is that the non-domestic client will be required to make sure that health and safety has been factored into their project, and that sufficient funding has been allowed in the budget for such health and safety considerations – and there are many more.
For more information on the CDM Regs. 2015 please see the Simply-Docs information pages.