We Carry the Client’s Construction Safety Duties for You.
When you commission construction work, the Construction Regulations make you the client — with duties that start before design and run to handover. OHSE Resolved acts as your appointed agent: permit, baseline risk assessment, specification, contractor approval and the 30-day audits, managed on your behalf.
Appointed in writing under CR 5(5). Our agents are registered with SACPCMP as required by CR 5(7).
The Client’s Duties Do Not Transfer to the Contractor.
Property owners, developers, landlords, municipalities and businesses expanding their premises are all “clients” under the Construction Regulations. Appointing a principal contractor does not discharge the client’s own duties under Regulation 5 — and where the project is large enough, Regulation 3 requires a construction work permit before a single person goes on site.
Regulation 5(5) allows the client to appoint an agent in writing to carry those duties. That is the service on this page.
New builds, extensions, refurbishments and fit-outs on your own property.
Tenant installations and building works across a portfolio.
Plant installation, warehouse racking, roofing, civils and maintenance projects on a working site — where the activity falls within the definition of construction work.
Capital projects where the institution is the client in law.
Does Your Project Need a Permit?
A client must apply to the provincial director for a construction work permit at least 30 days before work starts where the project will run longer than 365 days and involve more than 3 600 person-days of construction work — or, whatever its duration, where the contract falls within CIDB tender value grading 7, 8 or 9. The permit carries a site-specific number that must be displayed at the site entrance, and the application has to be supported by the client’s own specification and risk assessment — which is why the Regulation 5 work has to be done first.
Even where no permit is required, Regulation 4 obliges the contractor to notify the provincial director at least 7 days before any work that involves excavation, work at a height with a risk of falling, demolition, or the use of explosives — and before building a single-storey dwelling the client will live in. We manage that notification where it applies.
Construction work expected to last longer than 365 days
and more than 3 600 person days of construction work
or a contract in CIDB tender value grading 7, 8 or 9
Building a single-storey dwelling for a client who will live in it on completion is treated differently — Regulations 3 and 5 do not apply, so there is no permit and no client-agent appointment. The contractor must still notify the provincial director at least 7 days before work starts, under Regulation 4(2).
Core Client Duties, in the Order the Project Needs It.
Regulation 5(1) is a long list. Read in project order it is three phases of work — and each phase produces the documents the next one depends on.
Before design
Produces the two documents everything else depends on. 3 dutiesA project-level assessment of the hazards the work and the site will present, prepared before the specification is written.
Suitable, sufficiently documented and coherent — written from the baseline risk assessment.
The designer receives it, takes it into account during design and carries out the CR 6 designer duties.
Tender and appointment
Makes sure the right contractor is appointed, on the right terms. 5 dutiesEvery bidder prices the same health and safety requirements.
Tenders checked for a realistic allowance for health and safety measures.
The principal contractor must be able to carry out the work safely — people, equipment and systems.
Confirmed before any work starts on site.
Every principal contractor appointed in writing for the project, or the part of it they will perform.
Construction
Keeps the approved plan alive on site until handover. 6 dutiesDiscussed, negotiated and formally approved before implementation.
Implementation verified through audits and document checks at an agreed interval — never longer than 30 days.
Kept and maintained by the principal contractor; available on request to an inspector, the client, the client’s agent and contractors.
Reasonable steps so every contractor appointed by the client can comply.
Sufficient information and resources reach the principal contractor to do altered work safely.
Any contractor working outside the approved plan, or endangering people, is stopped.
Appointment
You appoint OHSE Resolved in writing as your agent — required under CR 5(5) for permit projects, and an option under CR 5(6) where the project only needs notification. We confirm scope, thresholds and whether CR 3 or CR 4 applies.
Pre-design pack
Baseline risk assessment and site-specific H&S specification, issued to the designer and built into the tender.
Permit & contractor approval
Permit or notification lodged, tenders checked for H&S provision, principal contractor appointed and its H&S plan negotiated and approved.
Construction & close-out
Audits and document verification at least every 30 days, non-conformances tracked to close-out, and the H&S file verified at handover.
You stay the client in law. Appointing an agent under Regulation 5(5) does not derogate from your own health and safety responsibilities or liabilities as the client. Our reporting is written so that you can always show what was done, when, and on whose decision.
Appoint Your Agent Before the Design Is Final.
Send us the project scope, expected duration and estimated value. We will confirm whether a permit is required and quote the client-side management for the full project.