Contract Administration in Kensington and Chelsea

This borough-level CA page concerns the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea’s construction-management interfaces. Neighbourhood pages provide the more specific building context. For an instruction, establish the site category, planning conditions, street arrangements and authorised client decisions alongside the chosen building contract.

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

Scope and fees

Establish the construction category before fixing the start assumptions

RBKC’s published construction code distinguishes three site categories and reserves the final category decision to its Construction Management Team. Its guidance identifies additional submission requirements for Category 1 and 2 projects. The appointment brief should establish the project’s actual position rather than assuming that all repairs use the same process. Obtain the relevant condition wording and authority correspondence, and identify who prepares each required submission. Put unresolved decisions into the programme with their responsible parties. The administrator should receive the approved information needed to assess the contractor’s starting assumptions; agreeing a building contract does not itself settle an outstanding council requirement.

Record the traffic-plan dependency separately from individual licences

The borough’s traffic guidance explains that, where a CTMP is a planning condition, formal approval and discharge precede the associated permits and licences. For the instructed project, list the proposed street activities against the current plan and approval references. Identify the parking, temporary structure or skip arrangements actually required, rather than treating them as one general permission. The council’s parking guidance also distinguishes applications where no CTMP condition applies. Have the responsible team confirm the appropriate route and retain the resulting documents. If an application or method changes, carry that information into the programme review without implying that every administrative delay creates a contractual entitlement.

Select the current adopted heritage record for each work location

RBKC publishes an index distinguishing adopted conservation appraisals, older proposal statements and management plans. A borough-wide appointment may involve properties falling within different designations, so identify the applicable record for each address before drafting repair requirements. Check the building’s own status and permission documents through the relevant advisers; an appraisal supplies context rather than consent for an alteration. If work is tendered as several packages, give each its own drawing, specification and outstanding-decision references. That allows the administrator to trace an instruction to the right property and approval, while avoiding the assumption that a detail or condition accepted at one site applies across the borough.

Separate council, neighbour and client decisions in the change record

The construction code deals with environmental and resident impacts, while the street guidance addresses activities on the highway. A project can also depend on private arrangements involving an adjoining owner or occupied building. Keep those decisions identifiable alongside the contract instruction record, with the appropriate professional advice where a party wall or property-right issue arises. Record what was requested, which party could authorise it, and how the eventual decision changes the priced work or method. At completion, distinguish remaining contract items from separate permission conditions and agreed reinstatement.

JCT tender preparation: Kensington And Chelsea

For a borough-level Kensington and Chelsea enquiry, reduce the tender scope to named properties and a defined employer before choosing a JCT form. A Colville shop-house example raises different occupation and access questions from a wholly residential terrace. Put the commercial-residential boundary on the drawings and identify which design decisions belong to the employer's team. Require tenderers to return a schedule of exclusions against those locations, with access and protection priced explicitly. Where a proposal crosses separate units, obtain the relevant permissions and responsibilities independently. Reconcile the accepted offer into one contract set rather than relying on the borough label to explain which fabric, occupiers or work stages are included.

The Colville appraisal records historic shop parades with accommodation above, including those on All Saints Road and smaller groups on neighbouring roads. It describes later changes of use at some ground-floor units. That history is a reason to establish the present arrangement of a purchased flat, not evidence that a particular internal conversion followed a standard plan.

Ask for the lease plan and any drawing showing changes beneath the flat. Identify separate entrances, common stairs and the route to the rear elevation. If a former shop now appears residential, request the documents explaining the conversion rather than judging it from the replacement windows. Information about another unit may be relevant, but should remain identified as supplied evidence when it cannot be checked during the inspection.

The Colville study records the former stables on the western side of Powis Mews, later used as Boundary Warehouse and subsequently containing residential and business studios. It contrasts these with later buildings on the eastern side. The mews name alone therefore does not identify one construction history or one original residential layout.

The Cheyne appraisal describes London valley roofs with drainage running towards the rear of individual houses. It gives examples around Oakley Gardens, Oakley Street and parts of Paultons Square and Danvers Street. It distinguishes these from other roof forms in the conservation area. A uniform parapet is therefore insufficient to identify the roof arrangement behind it.

The Cheyne study describes stock-brick houses at Paultons Square with stucco at lower-ground level, sash windows, ironwork and moulded cornices. Its account identifies differences in details around the square.

Where windows, railings or lower-ground accommodation have changed, request a dated explanation and the relevant documents. Check the exact address against current heritage and planning records before assuming that a neighbouring alteration provides a precedent. Ask which high-level details and lower-ground external surfaces can be examined within the agreed access. The local appraisal can explain character; it cannot approve a new design or certify work already concealed by finishes.

Check current requirements for the particular property and proposed work.

• RBKC: Code of Construction Practice and site categories
• RBKC: construction traffic plans and permission sequence
• RBKC: parking suspensions and highway licences
• RBKC: adopted conservation appraisals and management plans
• Kensington and Chelsea: Colville Conservation Area Appraisal (adopted 17 February 2015)
• Kensington and Chelsea: Cheyne Conservation Area Appraisal (adopted 30 January 2017; RBKC-hosted copy)

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

• Kensington and Chelsea area guide
• South West London area hub

Professional profiles · RICS regulation