Chartered Surveyors and Construction Projects

Chartered Surveyors & the Construction Industry

In the united kingdom, chartered surveyors are professionals with many varied roles across a multitude of industries and specialisations. Essentially, all chartered surveyors are members of RICS; the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, based in London SW1, and so are entitled use the suffix MRICS or FRICS [Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors]. To the general public in general, the chartered surveyor is somebody who works in the construction industry, and even the majority is specialists in building, property management and similar fields. However, many other areas require the services of a chartered surveyor, including artwork and antiques, mineral surveying and auctioneering.

Within the construction and property fields, chartered surveyors are involved in performing surveys for homebuyers, valuations for mortgage companies, full surveys of buildings, consultancy on construction developments, along with land surveys, management of estates and different other areas relating to land and property. Check out the post right here have a tendency to specialise within these fields, and frequently form professional partnerships with those working in different areas within the same industry.


RICS & Construction Contracts

Construction contracts are in the heart of every building project undertaken in the UK, and are made to be legally binding agreements between your building owner [developer] and the contractor(s) who will be performing the task. Labour costs, the way to obtain labour for the project, costs and offer of materials, and the time frame for the completion of the project are covered in the contract, as are the specifications, design plans, and agreements regarding any potential changes during the build.

The RICS is closely associated with construction contracts, and issues both statements that outline best practice guidelines for surveyors, and mandatory practice statements that cover all aspects of the assorted roles of chartered surveyors during construction projects. These roles include not just building and quantity surveyors, but also valuers and project managers. A lot of the mandatory and advisory statements produced by RICS relate to the role of chartered surveyors pertaining to construction contracts, and RICS members must follow them.

Contract Administration

Building contracts in the UK fall into a range of subcategories. Probably the most common are as follows:

? International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC)
? Public Procurement Contract 2000 (PPC 2000)
? The Joint Contracts Tribunal (JCT)
? New Engineering Contract (NEC)

Chartered surveyors working on building projects are therefore called on to deal not merely with contract administration, but additionally with regions of project management that may include material and labour costs, initial planning and feasibility studies (including site surveying and legalities), site and building safety, preventing and resolving any disputes that could arise, and building control.

Contract administration is crucial to the successful completion of a construction project, and chartered surveyors have a significant role to play. Together with overseeing the fulfilment of the agreed contract, and being involved with its termination, issues arising before the contract is agreed can include insurance for both the contractor and the project owner, warranties and guarantees, and adequate provision to cover any potential time overruns, payment difficulties, and defective work. The role of surveyors in relation to building contracts range from working with and managing the usage of non-standard contracts, together with those outlined above.

The Role of the Employer's Agent

On a design and build contract a chartered surveyor will often be engaged being an Employer's Agent, a job that may vary greatly depending on the specific needs of your client or the project itself. The role can also be affected by the quantity of time which is available, but fundamentally the Employer's Agent acts for your client on any matters relating to the construction contract. Typical projects in which an Employer's Agent may be engaged include large commercial or public property building contracts. RICS provides guidelines explaining the full range of services and activities which may be undertaken by the Employer's Agent.

These will most likely include, but are not limited to, picking or recommending contractors following the creation and agreement of the client's brief; ensuring that sustainability goals are achieved; advising on adherence to CDM or Construction (Design and Management) Regulations, updated recently with new legal duties for clients, designers and contractors amongst others; and the planning and management of costs and risks. Analysing tenders from contractors can be an important area of the role, and running meetings and ensuring smooth progress on the website itself are frequently involved.

The Role of the Project Manager

Project Managers have a key role in construction projects, which includes responsibility for overseeing the successful progress of the build, from the original planning stage to completion. An excellent PM can spot and resolve issues and problems before they arise, partly insurance firms the breadth of specialised knowledge essential for asking the right questions. Conflict and dispute resolution will require good diplomatic skills.

In the centre of the Project Manager's role is good communication. To ensure that a project to be completed within the allotted time scale and budget, while satisfying the original brief, a PM must think several moves ahead. It's essential, for instance, for the PM to make certain the look has been fully understood by everyone working on the project, that the client understands the cost implications of the task they have requested, and that the contractors are fully conversant with both client's requirements and the legal requirements involved. These can, and do change, and may frequently affect the success of a build. The creation of clear guidelines understood by everyone involved on the project is the first responsibility of a PM; making sure those guidelines are adhered to is equally important.

Targets must be set that enable cost, time scale and safety concerns to be met. Those targets should be agreed by both client and contractor, but the PM must also be able to maintain the good working relationship between them when unforeseen circumstances - for example, a rise in the expense of materials or labour, or revised legal duties - arise during the lifetime of the project.

Finally, the communication skills of the PM will undoubtedly be vital in producing progress reports because the project runs. These reports will include monitoring the completion of varied parts of the build, in addition to ensuring that costs are in line with the budget.

TWC Consulting offers a diverse selection of Construction Consultants on all types of major & minor works projects including Chartered Surveyors, Construction Project Managers, Employers Agents, Contract Administrators, Cost Consultants, Planning Advisors (and more) all from under one roof.

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Pub: 21 Dec 2023 03:00 UTC
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