Contract Administration in Barnet

Start a Barnet contract administration brief with the actual address and proposed work. The Wood Street examples below concern the historic town setting, rather than every property in the borough. Match the relevant council evidence to the building before agreeing the tender documents, temporary access and decision responsibilities.

HCS cannot act as independent contract administrator where HCS is the contractor. Confirm the appointment and executed form; NEC roles differ.

Scope and fees

Plan rear access around the historic plot layout

Barnet’s Wood Street appraisal describes narrow passages off the High Street and more intimate routes such as Coes Alley and The Croft. For an appointment using a rear approach, measure the passage, gates and changes in level before the contractor prices deliveries or waste removal. Establish whose land the route crosses and what access has actually been agreed. Include protection for the surfaces and adjoining fabric that the operation could affect. If a large item cannot reach its installation point as assumed, obtain a revised handling method and identify the affected tender allowance. Keep the access record with the resulting instruction so that the valuation relates to a demonstrable change.

Distinguish adapted premises from an unoccupied house

The appraisal records former domestic buildings adapted for offices at the eastern end of Wood Street, alongside residential and institutional uses. That historic account is a prompt to check present occupation, rather than a current tenant list. A refurbishment brief should identify the rooms, entrances and shared facilities included in the works, together with the client’s operational restrictions. Ask the contractor to explain the proposed sequence for each occupied part and identify required shutdown decisions. The administrator needs the agreed occupation assumptions when reviewing progress or a request to change the programme. Record later occupier requests with their authorisation, separating additional client requirements from delivery of the originally specified package.

Locate each repair within an almshouse group

Wood Street’s character evidence identifies groups of almshouses, including the Garretts and Ravenscroft buildings. For work to a building in such a group, an external appearance shared with its neighbours does not establish identical repair needs. Use a location schedule to distinguish the instructed roof, window or boundary item from adjoining retained fabric. Obtain the appropriate survey and design details, and identify any permissions affecting the proposed treatment. Price samples, protection and the agreed extent of making good explicitly. During inspection, relate photographs and decisions to that schedule. A completion assessment can then identify outstanding items at the correct dwelling without treating the whole architectural group as one undifferentiated contract item.

Keep green boundaries outside an assumed compound

The Wood Street appraisal distinguishes private gardens, formal parks and green boundaries formed by hedges, trees and low walls. Where these adjoin the Barnet worksite, mark the client’s authorised construction footprint before selecting a storage or scaffold position. Establish the necessary protection and any specialist advice for retained planting and boundaries. A nearby green space should not enter the contractor’s method simply because it appears convenient. Include a condition record and an agreed reinstatement description with the tender information. When temporary works are removed, compare the affected surfaces and edges with that record, and identify whether remaining work belongs to the original obligation or a separately authorised landscaping change.

JCT tender preparation: Barnet

For a Wood Street-area tender, distinguish a park-facing villa, shop-edge property or detached house on the actual drawings. Give each JCT bidder the same schedule of instructed ranges, garden structures and shared interfaces, with measurements and access responsibilities identified. Explain which repair details are already designed and which require an investigation followed by a decision. Compare the treatment of those uncertainties before judging the totals. A contractor's exclusion for a narrow rear route or occupied upper room should prompt a documented scope response. Keep the agreed handling, protection and making-good arrangements in the contract pack so the administrator can connect later valuations with the original obligation.

Barnet’s Wood Street character appraisal, adopted in July 2007, describes a conservation setting that includes historic Barnet Hill shops, Union Street to the north, villas facing Ravenscroft Park and detached houses towards Whalebones. The council’s official Open Barnet dataset supplies the downloaded appraisal. Its account distinguishes parts of this named setting; it does not describe all EN5 housing or the present condition of an individual purchase.

For a house towards the Whalebones side of the cited setting, show the main accommodation and any garage, garden room or other structure within the proposed works. A single plot can contain work recorded under several independent projects.

Group roof and drainage papers by the structure they actually name. If an outbuilding was altered for another use, request its layout and available project description separately from the dwelling’s refurbishment file. Boundary ownership and legal use questions should be considered with the relevant professional advice alongside the physical scope.

Check current requirements for the particular property and proposed work.

• Barnet: Wood Street appraisal, July 2007, sections 2 and 4.3
• Barnet: Wood Street Conservation Area Character Appraisal Statement, adopted July 2007

• Major works
• Tendering
• Clerk of Works
• Employer's Agent
• Insurance reinstatement

• Barnet area guide
• North London area hub

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