What is the definition of a domestic client?

The CDM Regulations 2007 define ‘client’ as a person who in the course or furtherance of a business seeks or accepts the services of someone to help carry out a project, or carries out a project themselves. Domestic clients are people who have work done to their own home or the home of a family member (which they live in or will live in), that does not relate to a trade or business, whether for profit or not. Local authorities, housing associations, charities, landlords and other businesses may own domestic property but they are not domestic clients.

[b]Note:[/b] See separate questions for property developers and management companies.



It is the status of the person procuring the work that will determine if the Regulations apply, not the nature of the premises. For example, where alterations are carried out on a domestic house to improve disabled access, and that work is procured by a local authority, then the client will be the local authority and CDM client duties will apply, even though the work is being done in domestic premises for the benefit of the householder.