Picture a six-storey block near the Liverpool waterfront. The cladding has to come off, the design and build contract is signed, and the contractor’s first payment application lands on a Tuesday: a six-figure sum for a month in which the scaffold went up and not a great deal else. Nobody on the client side is sure whether that’s fair. The payment notice deadline slips past, then the pay less notice deadline goes the same way. Under the contract, that application has just become the amount due.
We’ve watched versions of this play out more than once, and it’s rarely because anyone acted in bad faith. It’s because nobody was appointed to read the contract, watch the clock and push back. That job has a name. An employers agent is the person who stops a build quietly drifting off budget, off programme and out of your control. This guide explains what they do, when to appoint one and how the fees work.
What Is an Employers Agent?
An employers agent is the client’s representative on a design and build project. The role is written into the JCT Design and Build Contract (the 2016 edition and the newer 2024 edition), and it exists because of how that procurement route works: you hand the contractor responsibility for finishing the design as well as building it, in exchange for a single point of responsibility and earlier price certainty.
That trade has a catch. Once the contract is signed, the contractor controls the design. Your protection is the paperwork: the Employer’s Requirements, the Contractor’s Proposals and the contract itself. The employers agent administers all of it on your behalf, issuing instructions and notices, checking payment applications, managing change and certifying completion. RICS publishes dedicated practice information on the role, and it’s worth reading before you appoint anyone.
Employers Agent vs Contract Administrator vs Project Manager
The three get muddled constantly, even inside the industry. The difference comes down to which contract you’re using and when the appointment starts.
| Employers agent | Contract administrator | Project manager | |
| Contract form | JCT Design and Build | Traditional JCT (Standard, Intermediate, Minor Works) | Any; it’s the named role under NEC |
| Acts for | The client, but must certify fairly | Impartially between both parties | The client |
| Best appointed | Before tender | At contract signing | Any stage |
| Usually a | Chartered building surveyor or quantity surveyor | Often the architect | Varies |
If your contractor is designing as well as building, you need an employer’s agent. Name the role anything else and you’ll spend the project explaining what you meant.
What an Employers Agent Actually Does
Before the contract is signed
This is where the money is saved, and it’s the stage most clients skip. A good agent helps write the Employer’s Requirements so they’re measurable rather than hopeful, reviews tender returns for the quiet exclusions, checks the contractor’s insurances, handles novation of the design team where needed, and agrees how decisions will be made once work starts. On a remediation scheme, that also means lining up the fire strategy, warranty conditions and, for higher-risk buildings, the Building Safety Act gateway approvals before anyone prices the job. Appoint your agent after signature and you’ve already lost the chance to fix the contract’s weak points.
During construction
Now the role turns procedural, and procedure is what protects you. Each month the contractor applies for payment; the agent values the work actually done and issues the payment notice, or a pay less notice, inside the deadlines. Changes are instructed formally with cost and time agreed before commitment, not after. Extension of time claims are tested against the contract’s relevant events rather than nodded through. Site visits check compliance with the Employer’s Requirements, with a clerk of works added on larger schemes, and when something needs a closer look (cracking, damp, a roof nobody can reach) we bring in building pathology or a drone survey rather than guess.
Completion, defects and final account
Practical completion is a legal milestone, not a feeling. It starts the rectification period, releases half the retention and switches off liquidated damages for delay. Certify too early and you’ve handed away your leverage. The agent inspects, agrees the snagging list, confirms the O&M manuals and warranties are in hand, then manages defects through to the making good certificate and settles the final account. Done properly, the final figure holds no surprises.
When You Need One (and When You Don’t)
You almost certainly need an employers agent if you’re using a JCT Design and Build contract, the scheme involves multiple units or an occupied building, a funder is involved (lenders often insist on it), or you can’t be on site and in the paperwork every week.
You might manage without one if the works are small, you’re on a simple form such as JCT Minor Works, and you’ve delivered construction projects before. Even then, have someone review the Employer’s Requirements before you sign. It’s usually the cheapest advice you’ll ever buy. And if the full appointment isn’t worth your money, we’ll say so; a bad recommendation costs us more than any fee.
How Employers Agent Fees Work
Fees are usually one of three things: a percentage of the contract sum, a fixed lump sum, or a time charge against a defined scope. What matters more than the number is what sits inside it. Confirm the scope stage by stage, the agent’s authority limits (what they can approve without coming back to you), how often you’ll be reported to, and the level of professional indemnity insurance behind the appointment. One over-certified interim payment or one badly recorded variation will typically outstrip the entire fee, which is the fair way to weigh it.
Employers Agent Services in Liverpool and the North West
ASG Consulting provides employers agent services across Liverpool, Merseyside, Wirral, Sefton, Cheshire and Greater Manchester as a RICS-regulated practice. Much of our work is on residential blocks: cladding and fire safety remediation for housing providers and RTM boards, planned refurbishment of converted stock in the Georgian Quarter and Baltic Triangle, and new-build schemes for developers and their funders. Because we’re building surveyors first, the same team can support the wider job, from a schedule of condition before works start to commercial building surveying and structural engineering input when the site throws up a surprise. Our employers agent Liverpool team would rather start with a conversation than a contract.
FAQs
What does an employers agent do on a design and build project?
They act for the client under the contract: administering it, issuing instructions and notices, valuing and certifying payments, managing variations and extensions of time, certifying practical completion and settling the final account.
When should an employers agent be appointed?
Before tender wherever possible, so they can shape the Employer’s Requirements and review the contractor’s proposals before anything is locked in. Appointing after contract signature still helps, but the biggest decisions have already been made.
Is an employers agent the same as a contract administrator?
No. Both administer building contracts, but this role belongs to design and build contracts and acts for the client. A contract administrator sits under traditional JCT forms and must act impartially between the parties.
Does an employers agent replace the principal designer under CDM 2015?
No. CDM 2015 duties, including appointing a principal designer and principal contractor in writing, stay with the client. A good agent will check those appointments are in place, but it’s a separate role.
Final Thought
Most construction disputes don’t start with a dramatic event. They start with a missed notice, an instruction given over the phone, we’ll sort it later that nobody wrote down. The employers agent is the person paid to notice those moments while they’re still cheap.
If you’re planning a design and build scheme in Liverpool or the North West, talk to us before you sign anything. Request a Survey Quote or call 0151 315 0626.
About The Author
This article was written by John Smith, MRICS, Senior Building Surveyor at ASG Consulting, a RICS-regulated building surveying and construction consultancy based at 54 St James Street, Liverpool, L1 0AB. He acts as employer’s agent on cladding and fire safety remediation, refurbishment and new-build schemes across Liverpool and the North West.
Got a design and build question this guide didn’t answer? Email surveys@asg-consulting.co.uk.
