Dutyholder requirements
From 01 October 2023, any building work to which the Building Regulations apply will be subject to the new Dutyholding Regime.
These duties apply to ALL building work.
To help you understand the key changes we highly recommend that you spend 5 minutes reading through this document page so that you familiarize yourself and fully understand what these important changes mean for you.
The dutyholding requirements are similar, but parallel to existing requirements under the CDM Regulations 2015 and everyone who has a stake in a project (the client, designers, and contractors) have duties to have arrangements and systems in place to plan, manage and monitor both the design work and the building work to ensure compliance with the Building Regulations.
The new requirements focus on ensuring that building work complies with all relevant requirements of the Building Regulations rather than just Health and Safety on site.
New roles and responsibilities
There new dutyholder roles introduced into the current edition of the Building Regulations are as follows:-
Client:
These are organisations or individuals for whom a construction project is carried out that is done as part of a business.
Domestic Client:
A domestic client means a client for whom a project is being carried out which is not in the course or furtherance of a business of that client.
Principal Designers (PD):
A designer appointed by the client in projects involving more than one contractor. They can be an organisation or an individual with sufficient knowledge, experience, and ability to carry out the role.
Principal Contractors (PC)
A contractor appointed by the client to coordinate the construction phase of a project where it involves more than one contractor.
Domestic Clients
It’s important to understand that there is an exception to these responsibilities where a domestic client is concerned.
In this instance, the dutyholder responsibilities must be carried out by either:-
- The contractor where there is only one contractor or
- The principal contactor where there is more than one contractor or
- The principal designer where this is agreed in writing between the client and the principal designer.
If the domestic client fails to make the appointments the designer in control of the design phase of the project is the principal designer and the contractor in control of the construction phase of the project is the principal contractor.
A general duty requires all identified duty-holders to:
- collaborate.
- share information.
- manage their own competence.
- manage the competence of the people they appoint; and
- take steps to ensure the work they undertake is compliant.
Please be advised that going forward, Designers and contractors must step away from any work they believe to be non-compliant, and Designers must raise concerns about the compliance of work of other designers with the principal designer; and contractors must also ensure they provide suitable supervision of operatives and employees.
Furthermore, it’s really important that Dutyholders do not undertake any work for which they are not competent because the requirements for competence will be enforceable in the same way as all other requirements of The Building Regulations.
Naturally, South and Vale District Council’s, Building Control would like to maintain our good working relationships with existing and new clients however, we are duty bound to make all relevant persons aware of these immediate and significant changes to the Building Regulations 2010.
Further details about these changes can be found within the Building Regulations here
To register a change of dutyholder please complete this form:
Contact us - Building control
01235 422700
(Text phone users add 18001 before dialing)
Vale of White Horse District Council
Abbey House
Abbey Close
Abingdon
OX14 3JE
