I work for a large insurance company.  When a large loss commercial claim comes in it is usually handed to a third party managment company who instruct their network of contractors to complete the repairs however we may still have control on costs.  My understanding is the insured (policyholder) of the commercial property is the client and has the commercial client duties and not the insurer.  Is this correct?  Thanks.

Hi Phill

The definition of "client" in CDM is worded such that more than one of those you mention could be a "client".

I might be that the insurance policy and your contract with the third party organiser might shed light on who does what.

Otherwise it is about deciding who takes on which "client" functions.

So, as example the insured might not be the "client" for the purposes of the works but is the logical "client" for the purpose of receiving the "health and safety file" as new or amended at the end of the works and is likely to be interested in the progress of the works particularly if being done at a site where there are ongoing operations.

One of the many problems with the HSE guidance in L153 is that it assumes that there is only a single "client" which reflects what the Regulations say, but those do not alert you to the Interpretation Act 1978 which says that unless the context clearly indicates otherwise, any word in the singular includes the plural.

So, a "project" may involve work on multiple "structure(s)", have multiple "client(s)" along with other multiple duty holders AND often does.

Originally Posted by: Phill

i am assuming there has to be a contract agreement with the third party to clearly state who is the client.  

Where ther are multiple clients there doesn't have to be an agreement, but it's easier if there is.  See regulation 4 (8):

(8) Where there is more than one client in relation to a project—  (a) one or more of the clients may agree in writing to be treated for the purposes of these Regulations as the only client or clients; and  (b) except for the duties specified in sub-paragraph (c) only the client or clients agreed in paragraph (a) are subject to the duties owed by a client under these Regulations;  (c) the duties in the following provisions are owed by all clients—  (i) regulation 8(4); and  (ii) paragraph (4) and regulation 8(6) to the extent that those duties relate to information in the possession of the client. 

The 'all clients' duties are to cooperate with everyone else and to provide any relevant information they have.

However, having said all that, I disagree with the answer given up thread - in this case I would consider the insured to be the client.  The CDM Regs don't say the client is who pays for it - that's a bolt-on that's often said, but is not in the regs (though it often helps to identify who the client is).  In the regs, the client is "any person for whom a project is carried out", i.e, who benefits from the project, who wants the work done?  The insurance company doesn't.  It's the insured that wants the building work done - they want their building back usable, therefore they are the client, in my opinion.

It's the major flaw in CDM (in my opinion) - it assumes a very simplistic arrangement for every contract, where there's a cliebnt, who appoints a designer, who does and finishes the design and gives it back to the client, who then appoints a builder and gives them teh design, and teh buidler builds it.  I don't remember when Ilast saw a contract that actually worked like that...