Let’s be straight up from the get-go. Managing contractors can be a painful exercise. You can lose a lot of time chasing paperwork especially with vetting contractors.
It helps that there are health and safety third party prequalification schemes which do a chunk of the vetting for us. This though does not remove the need to proactively manage the specific risks for the job they are doing / will do.
In fact, it only heightens the need.
Prequalification schemes only look at a contractor on paper and truth be known, we can present a pretty darn good set up in theory when we need to.
What we do in practice though is what really matters. Our experience has shown that contractors can have great prequalification scores but be severely lacking in capability and understanding on the ground. This is typically evident where health and safety is run from the office and not on site – commonly referred to as ticking boxes.
How do we manage that?
Well, this is where the time requirement kicks in. Contractors should be given clear expectations from you. These expectations should highlight the property risks (as you know them), how they should be controlled, and what you require from the contractor whilst they do the work.
This would typically include the contractor providing things like a fit for purpose / site specific risk management plan.
For a property manager who signs off on this you should really know what you are looking at. Merely saying yes, we have received a site specific safety plan is not good enough. Does it actually cover what it needs to?
If you take the position that you as a property manager are not the one signing off on the documentation as that all sits with the contractor, unfortunately this is incorrect. The only reason the contractor is there is because you need them to be. As such you have the overriding control and influence.
If you let the contractor commence work on a property you manage, your sign-off is implied so please do take the time to understand what your role (and exposure is). Welcome to the Health & Safety at Work Act.
