Appointing contractors may be routine for a Property Manager, but this doesn’t mean that accidents and health and safety incidents arising from their work needs to be routine too.
Whether you are selecting a contractor for roof works, electric works, or external maintenance, they are likely to be strangers to your building and, therefore, they won’t necessarily be aware of known hazards, emergency procedures, site rules or safety procedures – all of which will be bespoke to that property.
Even where you may have a longstanding relationship with a contractor who you perhaps use for various sites, can you satisfy yourself that their work and the work of their team is completed in a way that does not pose a risk to themselves or others?
In accordance with regulation and HSE Guidance (if you are interested, check out HSG159 & INDG 368) you should have an adequate procedure in place for contractor management.
Communication is Key
As previously mentioned, one of the main causes for accidents involving the appointment of external contractors is poor communication between the parties involved – in this case, Property Managers or Landlords.
Communication is key; not only will you need to brief contractors of your property’s processes, you will need to scrutinise what they plan to do to ensure they have considered safety, communicating with any affected parties, such as residents, at all times in order to keep them updated.
In some cases, you may have more than one contractor working at your property. In such a case, you will need to consider and manage how their work may impact one another.
Also, if the building was built pre-2000, then you will need to consider any safety implications arising from the potential presence of Asbestos. Contractors should be given access to the buildings’ Asbestos Surveys and Register and it is vital that they are asking to see this before any works commence.
Smart Safety
Having access to the safety information of a building is so crucial for contractors, which is why have developed Smart Safety to make this process easier. As a Property or Block Manager, you can use Smart Safety to customise and print a unique QR code for each of your properties in order to display in the communal areas.
This will give contractors (and other visitors to the site) access to safety information for the building; with information from your Health, Safety and Fire Risk Assessments, Water Hygiene Risk Assessments and Asbestos Surveys accessible on the persons mobile phone or
Why is Contractor Vetting so Important?
We have established that communication between you and your contractors is highly important: however, before you can even begin to address this you need to ensure that the contractors you intend to appoint have adequately planned to work safely in the first place.
Just some of the points that you should be considering when employing contractors are:
- Are they trained in the safe working practices of their work?
- Do they regularly maintain and inspect their equipment?
- Have they carried out a suitable assessment of the risk for their works?
- Do they hold any mandatory licenses and insurances?
- Do they subcontract and, if so, do they sufficiently effectively assess the safe working practices of their sub-contractors?
It can be quite an onerous task but, almost inevitably, there are an abundance of companies willing to take this on by pre-vetting your contractors; with a view to cutting down your workload. There still remains the required on-site spot checks and management of high-risk projects, but they can really be of assistance. One such company is Safe4site, however there are a number of others available.
Finally, it is important to note that this works both ways; contractors also need to comply with the relevant health and safety legislation and ensure that their working practices are safe. Furthermore, you should refer to the HSE Guidance (HSG159) which outlines your requirements and why contractor management is so important.
