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Q&As
What is the role of the Building Regulations principal designer?
I work in construction design and management (CDM) and am currently working on a domestic project with a client who is taking on a lot of the work themselves with only a handful of specialist trades.
Despite almost 60 years of shared experience between myself and the client, we are unsure how the role of a Building Regulations principal designer works for domestic clients, what the precise and relevant guidelines are and what they mean in practise. Is anyone able to shed some light on this?
One Answer
Self builders and renovators are required to appoint a principle designer for any project that has more than one. The term designer refers to anyone who plans any part of the building work – including structural engineers, so most projects are covered. If a principal designer isn’t appointed, the person commissioning the work is deemed to have taken on this responsibility.
Before a designer is appointed, they must accept the role and agree to sign the job off once it is completed. Before a building inspector can issue a completion certificate, the project must be signed off by the client, principal designer and principal contractor. Sometimes the builder can take on the principal designer duty, but often they don’t want to do this.
Initially, many architects were reluctant to sign if they have had no role on site, but the guidance has made it clear that they are only signing off the design, not changes made to the building work during construction. These new rules are why building inspectors, who previously used to give informal advice on how to pass the regulations to architects and builders, now refuse to do so.
Issues can arise if either the builder or architect refuses to sign off the job due to unrelated disputes with their client, such as fee disputes, for example. I have no direct experience of this happening, but the lack of a completion certificate from the building inspector would prevent a self builder from occupying the house.