1. If someone is fulfilling a role under CDM who is employed we always name the employer (company) and just have the individual named as the main contact. I would never accept being personally named as a duty holder.

There are many reasons behind this ranging from insurance, controlling minds and actual liability, being sued, being hung out to dry if something goes wrong etc.

2. No, you will be deemed a client.

3. A Client can take on all the duties. How a client organises themselves is down to them as long as they fulfil all the duties. Some clients run integrated teams where there is no separation but others like to separate the roles out.

Those who appoint that contractor are the Client for CDM purposes!

We haven't appointed the contractor, nor are we paying for the work. Our site lends itself to this organisation carrying out a piece of work on it, that's all. We won't use what they build, we won't pay for it, we haven't appointed or assigned them, they are just renting the space from us and once completed they'll remove what they build.

I am not clear about the relationship between yourselves and this external contractor. Are they carrying out any work for your, are they a completely different company and what are they planning to build?

If the work is being carried out by your tenants, you and the tenant may be a client and it will come down to the terms and conditions in the lease. If like a lot of landlords you are not commissioning the works but grant permission it is important that the tenant is nominated as the client. This may already be spelt out in the lease.
If you also operate from the same site then you have to do more than just nominate the tenant as the client. Although once nominated the tenant will be held responsible under CDM you also have to have safety arrangements in place.

I think you've confused the whole issue as you're opening message stated:

"other than monitoring them as a contractor".

Ok, this is a bit more unusual and whether you have duties under CDM is blurred and open to argument. CDM applies regardless of contractual arrangements, although it helps greatly, and payment. This is a legal question and you need to ask if you are “a person for whom a project is carried out”?

By allowing the construction work on a site that you own it can be argued that you are (by you I do mean your employer). I believe you will have Client’s duties under CDM but can put arrangements in place to shift the burden from yourselves to the organisation conducting the experiment.

Yes sorry, some of it is sensitive, but the issue isn't what they're doing, I am confident this is CDM, it's just whether we have a client function. I welcome your thoughts and advice and can see the overlap, although do fail to see that we can have any client function when there is no payment involved, the work is not being carried out for us, and we won't have anything to do with the work, it just happens to be on our site.

Hi Gramsay, thanks for responding. I've read and re-read to make sure I understand what you're saying, and that is that we wouldn't be the client?

Sorry, I think I am getting confused here, not being difficult but genuinely need to understand, so please bear with me :)

We are the controller of the site, so yes we will issue rules about how things are done as we would any contractor coming on to site, does that make us the client?

I agree with Alfasev - clear instruction is the key here, so that all parties understand exactly what they must do.

Short answer to your question is that NO that does not make you the (CDM) client for work that your "tenant" (for want of a better description) carries out on their own behalf. The fact that they are complying with your own site rules doesn't change this.

We moved offices last year into a new business centre. We remodelled the interior, did a whole lot of comms work, etc. We liaised with our landlords, who have rules about how work is carried out. WE were the client for the work, not our landlord.

As the occupier of the premises, you'll want to know that any work being done isn't putting people at unreasonable risk and isn't exposing you to greater liability than you'd otherwise have. A clear statement that the "tenant" (or whatever) must behave in a legally compliant manner is probably the starting point. I've just had a look through our lease for the current premises, and there's a clause detailing our duty "to comply with statutes":



(just an example of why, as Alfasev says, legal advice is useful for anything contractual. You'll need your own words matching your own needs in your own legal jurisdiction).

I don't think you need to spell out CDM in particular, as I really don't think there's anything in the description of your relationship, and of the project that would make me think you were a CDM client in the first place. One useful thing would be to require the tenant to liaise with you over any refurbishment, construction or maintenance work - at this meeting you would confirm that they are managing any construction work properly and ask them to keep you informed.

Sorry that was a bit long winded, hope it helps - Good Luck. And tell us later what the big secret was!