Start with the decisions that need to be made, then identify who has authority to make them. Contract administration, wider project coordination and site inspection can support the same building project, but they are not interchangeable appointments. This guide helps you prepare a responsibility schedule before comparing proposals. It complements our existing role explainers by concentrating on the handovers between people: who receives a site observation, who decides the response, who communicates it to the contractor, and who records its cost and programme implications.
Match the role to the building contract
Under a traditional JCT arrangement, the named architect or contract administrator operates the contract's procedures. JCT Design and Build uses an Employer's Agent. A general project-management appointment does not automatically carry either role's authority. RICS distinguishes these appointments by their functions and the agreed relationship, rather than by job title alone.
Read the proposed building contract alongside each consultancy appointment. Write down the role named in the contract, the organisation providing it, any delegated authority and the decisions reserved to the client. If the proposal says only project oversight, ask which contractual functions that includes. A clear answer should identify the documents and responsibilities, rather than rely on a broad service label.
Separate project coordination from contractual decisions
A project coordination brief might cover the overall programme, client meetings, information requests and reporting across designers and advisers. Define those deliverables separately from instructions, assessments or certificates issued under the building contract. Request a sample reporting structure and a list of the information the coordinator will need from the rest of the team.
For each meeting, distinguish an action to investigate from authority to change the work. Decide how a client preference becomes a design proposal and, if accepted, a properly recorded contractual instruction. Ask who checks the cost and time consequences before that point. This prevents a meeting minute being relied on as the whole record of a decision that required further approval.
Define the inspection and reporting handover
A Clerk of Works appointment focuses on checking work and reporting observations against the agreed requirements. It should identify the inspection scope, visit arrangements and reporting recipients. That inspection role should not be treated as automatic authority to change the contractor's work or replace the contract administrator's decision-making function.
Agree what happens after a concern is reported. A useful record identifies the location, drawing or specification reference, observation and evidence, then assigns the next action. Ask who decides whether further inspection, design input or an instruction is needed. Set a route for urgent concerns as well as routine reports, and identify who records the response and checks that the matter has been closed.
Record the limits of an Employer's Agent appointment
For design and build, compare the agent's proposed authority with the employer's retained decisions. Ask which communications the agent may issue without further approval, how proposed changes are assessed, and when the client must be consulted. The professional appointment and the executed contract need to be read together; a short description on a quotation is not a complete authority schedule.
If you are also appointing a project manager, set out how the two will exchange information. Identify the owner of the client report, the programme discussion, the cost forecast and the formal contract record. Give each output a named recipient and purpose. Two people attending the same meeting should not leave the client unsure which document records the operative decision.
Do not carry JCT labels into NEC unchanged
NEC4 ECC has a contractual Project Manager and a separate Supervisor. NEC's published explanation distinguishes the Supervisor's testing and defects functions from the Project Manager's wider contract-management functions. A generic project-manager label used elsewhere on a project does not establish an NEC appointment.
For an NEC project, ask the proposed team to describe responsibilities using the selected contract's own terminology. Identify who manages the programme and contractual communications, and who deals with inspections and defects. Check the actual appointment before assuming a professional already involved in another capacity can perform either function. Do not translate an existing JCT responsibility schedule simply by changing the heading at the top.
Use a responsibility schedule to compare proposals
Create a schedule with a row for each recurring output: meeting notes, inspection reports, instructions, payment assessments, change records and completion records. Add columns for preparation, checking, approval, issue and storage. Ask each adviser to mark the tasks included in their proposal and to identify the information or decision they need from others.
Use the schedule to find gaps and duplicated effort before negotiating the fee. Compare the proposed attendance, reporting and availability assumptions, as well as the document list. For tasks that are excluded, identify who will cover them. A lower quotation may reflect a narrower appointment, while a longer list of activities still needs clear boundaries and deliverables to be useful.
If one person covers several functions
A combined proposal needs to explain how each function will be performed, recorded and resourced. Ask which decisions require professional judgment under the contract and how those are distinguished from advice to the client. Check how absence, a conflict or a change of personnel will be handled. Combining tasks does not remove the need to describe them separately.
For HCS contract administration, the contractor must be independent of HCS. The professional appointment cannot be used to present HCS as the independent certifier of its own works. Keep the contractor relationship and professional responsibilities explicit when assembling the team, and read the firm's published independence statement alongside the proposed scope.
Prepare the appointment discussion
Send the proposed contract and amendments, works description, design responsibility, current project stage and intended programme. Identify existing appointments and any tasks you expect the new adviser to take over. Include known information gaps and decisions with approaching deadlines. If work has started, provide the current instruction and payment records so the scope discussion addresses the actual position.
Use our London contract administration service for the commercial appointment and scope. For narrower background reading, see Employer's Agent versus project manager, the Clerk of Works role and the introductory CA guide. The next step is a written allocation of responsibilities that fits the selected contract and the project team.