Appointment of Principal Designer (B163)

Who can use this Principal Designer Appointment?

Any  developer or individual who is going to build an office, house or other construction project.  It is also a useful template for anyone who offers principal designer services.

The appointment of a principal designer is a legal requirement under two different laws.  But as the same person – the architect or designer of the building – is likely to have both roles, our template covers them both, thus saving time, money and documentation.

What is this principal designer appointment for?

For health & safety reasons every building project needs a ‘principal designer’ who is responsible for planning and coordinating health and safety before construction starts on site.  It’s a legal requirement under the CDM Regulations 

And, since 2023, a ‘principal designer’ also has to be appointed under the Building Regulations.  The main objective is to ensure that, if built in accordance with the approved designs, the completed structure will comply with the Building Regulations. The new regulations were introduced as a result of the Grenfell disaster in London a few years ago.

If you only want an appointment of a CDM principal designer or a Building Regulations principal designer, it is easy to adapt the template to deal with this.

One point to mention here:  the duties under the Building Regulations in our template do not include those relating to higher-risk buildings, i.e. building at least 18m, high or 7 storeys with at least two residential units.

What are the main issues when preparing a Principal Designer Appointment?

The client has a legal duty to appoint a principal designer who is qualified for the work and the principal designer has a legal duty to be suitably qualified. The CDM Regulations issued in 2015 set out the health & safety requirements. The Building Regulations, as updated in 2023, set out the Building Regulations requirement

Details of the services are covered in the CDM Regulations and Building Regulations  and our principal designer appointment template reflects these services in two separate schedules.

It is important for  the principal designer to have adequate professional indemnity insurance.

As for fees, this is a matter for negotiation, usually with fees paid in stages.

What detailed terms does the Principal Designer Appointment contain?

This eight page document contains 20 clauses covering

For more information on each of these sections, see our Explanatory Notes  which you will receive when you download the document from our website.

For information on signing documents see our Contract Signing page

When I download the document, can I change it and/or use it more than once?

Yes, all ContractStore’s templates are in MS Word and you can use the contract on more than one project. For more information, watch the video on this page of our website or see our FAQs

Legal support

ContractStore supplies templates and is not a law firm.  But all our templates are written by experienced lawyers, in this case a specialist construction solicitor.  So, we can arrange legal assistance for customers who need special terms in one of our documents or a bespoke template. . For more information see our Legal Services page.

And if you want to contact us see our Contacts page.