I am the Company Secretary of the company which owns the freehold of Hillside, a building which comprises 7 flats. All 7 lessees are shareholders in the company. The company is a member of the FPRA. I am the leaseholder of flat 2. We are about to appoint a contractor to carry out the external decoration of the building which is a three story Victorian house. We are unclear whether the Directors have any other responsibilities when appointing a contractor. We have read, for example, about the HSEs CDM regulations. To what extent do they apply in our case? Do you know of any guidelines or can you help us to decide what we need to do to ensure that we comply with them?

The answer on CDM is The CDM Regulations deal with the management of health and safety and they place duties on clients, planning supervisors, designers and contractors to plan, coordinate and manage health and safety throughout all stages of the construction project. The reason why the Construction Design and Management Regulations will apply is that it is anticipated by the nominated contractor that the project will fulfil 1 of the following criteria: last more than 30 days, or involve more than 500 person days of work, or involve 5 or more people working on site at any one time

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