Good Afternoon,

I have no doubt this may have arisen previously but your thoughts on the following scenario would be appreciated:

Policy Holder (PH) makes claim to the Insurance Company (IC) after fire/flood etc
IC send in an independant Loss Adjuster (LA) to identify the scope of works
Work is put out to tender by LA
As long as quotes fall within agreed scope the PH can choose which contractor/s they wish to use
PH signs a mandate that we produce stating:
" I hereby undertake to pay joe bloggs and sons (us) the cost of my policy excess and where applicable, any agreed additional or private works not included within the insurance policy.
I hereby authorise the insurance company to pay all monies due for the interim and final payments to Joe Bloggs and sons (us)"


Of course work is longer than 30 days etc but who in your opinion is the client? Bearing in ming Regulation 2-1 which states "Client" means a person who in the course or furtherance of business seeks or accepts the services of another which may be used in carrying out of a project for him. Would the signed mandate be evidence that the PH is in fact the client?

The scope of works we receive from the LA also identifies the the PH as the client. In these insatnces it is the PH who instructs us to carry out the work and agrees to pay us via the IC.

Obviously the main reason I am looking into this is to prevent unnecessary paperwork.

Many Thanks
DNW

I was hoping for some good response to this, is the post too detailed, not detailed enough?

That's my understanding too. The PH is the client and Domestic is not notifiable.

simples! (though probably not...)

PH2 - You need to look at Paragraph 33 to 35 of the ACOP - this tells you, and then if in doubt speak to your local HSE Inspector to get the low down - they don't bite and are usually pragmatic about these things. From what you are saying it sounds like the client is the householder (PH) and therefore they attract no duties under CDM 2007. The clue is in the words ' however where the insured arranges the work and the IC reimburses them, the insured is the client'. This maybe why the IC is giving the choice to the PH? Thats not to say other dutyholders do not have duties.

Hi Ron,
the Policy Holder is only paying the contractor the value of the excess on their policy. As the original poster stated the Loss Adjuster (acting on the instructions of the Insurer), tendered the work: not the policy holder. I still suggest that it is the Insurance company that is the Client.

PH2

Thanks for your responses.

The majority of our work is through Insurance Companies/Loss Adjusters so generally we have to consider the Insurance Company as the client. This particular workstream is slightly different.

Ron and PH2 are close to where I'm coming from. As I understand it the Insurance Company suggest to the Policy Holder that they can put them in direct contact with the loss adjuster to arrange the works once the scope and costs have been agreed. The Insurance companies only involvement thereafter is when they pay up on the instruction of the policy holder.