Contract Administration in Greenwich

These Greenwich examples concern West Greenwich’s residential streets and local building groups. They do not describe every property in the borough or the entire riverside estate. Public character records inform the questions; current survey, design advice and the actual appointment establish the work that a contract administrator will be asked to administer.

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

Scope and fees

Measure Hyde Vale’s changing levels and plot arrangements

Royal Greenwich’s Hyde Vale survey describes a street that rises and turns, with terraces and detached villas on differing plots. For a works brief, measure the actual approach, building levels and intended handling route before agreeing access assumptions. Obtain competent advice on temporary works and identify any adjoining land requiring permission. The tender should locate the relevant elevation and distinguish the permanent repair from delivery protection and reinstatement. The administrator needs the original access arrangement and reasons for subsequent changes when reviewing programme or additional cost. A continuous street name does not establish equivalent working space, entrance dimensions or an identical setup at a property further uphill.

Separate Hyde Vale’s stock brick, render and darker villa brick

The council’s photo survey distinguishes stock-brick terraces, sometimes with rendered ground floors, from detached villas built in darker brick. A frontage repair therefore needs a material record for the particular property and component. Inspect current finishes and ask the designer to resolve the proposed treatment, including any investigation behind later coatings. State sample decisions and protection of adjacent surfaces in the tender. The administrator should keep accepted references and authorised changes with elevation photographs, allowing completed quantities and finish to be checked against the defined scope. An apparent colour match with a nearby house is not evidence of the same brick, coating history or suitable repair method.

Record Hyde Vale’s surviving stone-baluster boundaries

Royal Greenwich records front walls with stone balusters surviving in parts of Hyde Vale. Where an access or external works proposal affects a similar boundary, inspect the actual wall and decorative elements and confirm the employer’s work limits. Obtain appropriate advice on protection, temporary removal and reinstatement before the contractor prices the route. Use photographs and component references to distinguish retained pieces from any proposed replacement. The administrator can then assess making good against the agreed record and identify additional instructions clearly. A historic street description should not be used to assume that every boundary has the same construction or that a contractor may alter an adjoining frontage to simplify deliveries.

Keep the Maidenstone Hill and Straightsmouth groups property-specific

The West Greenwich appraisal identifies the Morden College Estate terraces on Maidenstone Hill and cottages at Straightsmouth among its locally important building groups. For a multi-property instruction, record the actual addresses, elevations and management responsibilities rather than price the group name as a single undifferentiated item. Obtain current plans and condition information, and ask the designer to identify variations that affect the repair. Keep shared arrangements, individual entrances and access permissions clear in the tender. The administrator can then report progress and remaining work by property, retaining authorised changes under the same references so the completion record distinguishes the agreed group contract from work requested at another nearby building.

JCT tender preparation: Greenwich

For a West Greenwich project, show the actual relationship between the main house, projecting shopfront and later additions in the tender information. A hillside villa requires its own measured access and levels rather than the assumptions used for a Greenwich South Street frontage. Discuss the JCT form with the design responsibility and outstanding information identified. Ask bidders to separate temporary protection and handling from permanent repair quantities. Reconcile a qualification that omits work behind the shopfront or assumes a different access route before acceptance. Keep the agreed scope and commercial adjustment in the contract set, allowing later instructions to be assessed against the particular building's original package. Where the rear work sits above or below the street entrance, provide the measured levels and agreed handling route. Compare tender assumptions against those drawings before accepting an allowance described only as normal access.

The council’s 2013 West Greenwich appraisal describes Greenwich South Street’s Georgian houses with later projecting shopfronts and pairs of early nineteenth-century villas backing toward the railway. Its Crooms Hill and Hyde Vale accounts separately describe terraces, townhouses and villas climbing the escarpment. These are character-area examples, rather than a single form for every Greenwich home.

Request the drawings for changed openings in the shop or rear wall, with their dates and the supported floors marked. List business premises that would need an additional access arrangement.

Collect the available drawings for excavation, waterproofing or an enlarged lower room by project date. Identify the components those works covered and any adjoining space that remains inaccessible. The hill setting supplies context; the property’s evidence should establish the question to be investigated.

Check current requirements for the particular property and proposed work.

• Royal Greenwich: West Greenwich photo survey B, Hyde Vale, page 70
• Royal Greenwich: West Greenwich appraisal, local building groups, page 125
• Greenwich: West Greenwich Conservation Area Appraisal, 2013

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