Who counts as a domestic client
The Health and Safety Executive's guidance makes you a domestic client whenever the building being worked on is your own home. A re-roof qualifies, and so do a chimney rebuild, new gutters and a patch of slate repair, provided the building is where you live.
The label matters because the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 attach a set of duties to clients: making sure the work is planned, that the people doing it are suitable and that enough time and money are allowed for it to be done safely. A householder who rings a roofer after a storm is in a very different position from a developer, and the rules recognise it by routing a domestic client's duties elsewhere.
Under regulation 7 the paperwork is therefore the contractor's, not yours. What you do need is a contractor who knows the duties exist and does not treat them as someone else's problem.
The commercial side of the same rules is covered in our guide to CDM and commercial roof work.
Where your duties go
Regulation 7(1) of the 2015 Regulations says a domestic client's duties are to be carried out by somebody else, and who that is depends on the number of contractors on the project.
| On your job | Duties go to |
|---|---|
| Only one contractor | That contractor |
| More than one contractor | The principal contractor |
On a straightforward roof job with a single firm in charge, the duties land on that firm. If you hire one firm for the roof and another for a chimney or an extension on the same project, two contractors are involved, and a principal contractor takes over the role. If you are unsure how many firms are involved, ask before the work starts.
Either way, the thing to do as a householder is ask. Who is the contractor? If two firms are involved, which of them is the principal contractor, and has that been agreed in writing? A firm that knows the answer gives it in a sentence, and the question should not cause offence.
The construction phase plan
One duty is easy to see on a roof job. Where one contractor alone is working on the project, regulation 15(5) puts the writing of a construction phase plan on that contractor. The plan records how the work will be managed for health and safety while it is carried out.
For a roof it does not have to be long. It deals with the things that go wrong on roofs: working at height, access and edge protection, tools and tiles falling, fragile surfaces, the scaffold, and who else is near the site, including neighbours and people passing on the pavement.
The Work at Height Regulations 2005 sit alongside it. Regulation 6(3) makes preventing falls an employer's duty, to the extent that is reasonably practicable, and a plan that mentions the scaffold and the edge protection is the practical record of how that is being met.
Ask the roofer how the plan will cover your house in particular. A short answer is fine, as long as it mentions the scaffold, the access route, and what happens to your gutters, your path and your car.
What it means for your job
The extra duties that grow with a bigger project depend on two or more contractors being involved, not on a notification sent to anybody. A householder with one firm doing one roof is in the simplest position the regulations describe.
These are the questions worth putting to any firm before you sign:
- Are you the only contractor on this job, or will other firms work on it?
- Will you draw up a construction phase plan, and can I see it before the work starts?
- Who puts up the scaffold, and who applies to Kent County Council for the licence?
- How will the path and the neighbouring drives be kept clear?
Scaffold arrangements belong in the same conversation, and our answer on the Kent scaffold licence covers who applies. If a neighbour shares your roof or chimney, the Party Wall Act may also come into it, as explained in our answer on party wall notices for roof work.
All the roofing we do around Margate and Thanet begins with the survey and ends with one written price.
