Duty holders

The regulations set out duty holder roles for persons and organisations who undertake any building work to which the building regulations apply, these are:

• A Client is a person for whom the project is carried out
• A Domestic Client is the same as the Client, but not for the furtherance of a business activity
• A Designer is any person (including a client, builder or anyone else) who carries out, arranges for or instructs design
• A Contractor is any person (including a Client (but not a domestic client) who carries out, manages or controls work

All duty holders must share information with anyone who might be affected within the Client, Designer and Contractor chain.

The roles are modelled on those within CDM regulations and are already embedded in the construction industry. 

However, these duty holder roles now extend beyond Health and Safety and into Building Regulation compliance as well as setting out roles and responsibilities that also cover residential domestic building projects.

Duty holder roles and responsibilities

New duties are proposed for those who procure, plan, design, manage and undertake building work. The new duties apply to all building work to which the Building Regulations 2010 apply.

Under the new duties, the Client is the person responsible for commissioning the building work and is considered to have overall control over the project. 

The Client, the person commissioning the work, has a duty under the new Regulations to take all reasonable steps to satisfy themselves that any and all Duty holder(s) acting on their behalf are competent.

However, for domestic projects, it is considered unlikely that the Client will have sufficient competence to carry out this duty and therefore most of the client duties will be placed on those undertaking the design work and the building work as appointed by the Client.

The person(s) appointed by the Client must then give notice to us, with a statement explaining it is on behalf of a domestic Client and providing the Client details.

Although the Client can delegate tasks, they cannot delegate responsibilities and must ensure that those they appoint have the right competencies to take on these roles.

The Client as the Duty holder or the appointed Duty holder(s) need to ensure that there are arrangements and systems in place to plan, manage and monitor design work and building work to ensure compliance with Building Regulations.

If at any point during the application or construction process or at any time after a building control approval application is made or a building notice is given, the Client for a project changes, the outgoing Client must give notice to the relevant authority of the change and details of the new Client.

Where the Client is a domestic client, the outgoing Duty holder(s) must provide information to the domestic client within five calendar days of their appointment ending.