Contract Administration in Gospel Oak

Documented building context

Camden’s Mansfield appraisal describes 108–144 Fleet Road as late nineteenth-century, three-storey terrace houses in grey brick. It records full-height square bays with paired sash windows, roofs concealed by decorative brick parapets, and recessed entrances close to the pavement. The same street account distinguishes neighbouring shop parades and later mews development from this numbered terrace.

Existing-building records for the tender

Where a terrace house has been subdivided or extended, put the original and current layouts together with their dates. Mark inserted stairs, bathrooms, removed walls and rear additions individually. Identify which structural drawing belongs to each change instead of using a general refurbishment description for the whole building.

Gospel Oak tender and contract decisions

For work to the Fleet Road terrace identified by Camden, locate the full-height square bay, parapet and recessed entrance on the tender elevation. A repeated frontage should not become a single undifferentiated allowance. Ask the designer to specify each material and repair, with the actual quantities, samples and protection requirements. The historic group description does not establish what survives behind later coatings or replacement windows at the particular house.

The roof hidden by a parapet needs its own current survey information. Define access to the covering, drainage connections and junctions that matter to the proposed work. A bay-window replacement should remain distinct from repair to the projecting structure or its weatherproofing. Give tenderers the same investigation assumptions and state who supplies the design when concealed conditions are exposed. Retain the findings, revised detail and JCT instruction together so the valuation can follow the authorised change rather than a broad claim that the bay was refurbished.

If the instruction concerns a converted flat, show its extent within the whole house and identify the relevant shared elements. Establish the access arrangements through the client or managing contact before accepting the contractor's programme. Record any occupied entrance that must remain available, particularly where the frontage is close to the pavement. At handover, connect outstanding items and required documents to the roof, bay, entrance or internal package actually instructed. The completion record should not imply a survey of excluded accommodation or certification of inaccessible fabric.

Resolve design responsibility for the bay and roof interfaces before selecting the JCT form. Identify any specialist-designed portion and its submission dates, so the contract's information and instruction procedures can be applied to a defined package.

HCS cannot act as independent contract administrator where HCS is the contractor.

Contract scope

• Camden: Mansfield Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Strategy, adopted 4 December 2008 — PDF / printed page 13, Character Sub Areas, Sub Area 1: Fleet Road; 108–144 Fleet Road and adjoining shop/mews groups.

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

• Camden area guide
• Kentish Town
• Hampstead
• Dartmouth Park
• Hampstead Heath
• Belsize Park

Professional profiles · RICS regulation