Employer’s Agent Services in London
On a design and build contract, the contractor controls the design — so the employer needs a strong agent. Wimbledon Surveyors acts as employer’s agent across London, defining your requirements and holding the contractor to them on cost, quality and programme. Discuss your scheme.
Employer’s Requirements
The ER document is your protection: we write requirements precise enough that the contractor’s proposals can be measured against them throughout the project.
Reviewing Contractor’s Proposals
We scrutinise proposals and design development for compliance, quality and hidden scope gaps before they become change orders.
Cost and Progress Monitoring
Monthly reporting on spend against budget and progress against programme keeps you informed and the contractor honest.
Handover and Aftercare
We manage completion, snagging and the defects period — pairing naturally with a snagging inspection at handover.
Appoint an Employer’s Agent
Residential and commercial D&B schemes across London. See our project management services or request a proposal.
Employer’s Agent for Design and Build Projects
On a design and build contract, the contractor controls both the design and the construction — which is efficient, but leaves the client dangerously outnumbered without professional representation. The employer’s agent (EA) is the client’s answer: a professional acting solely for you, administering the contract, monitoring quality against the Employer’s Requirements and certifying payment. We provide employer’s agent services on JCT Design and Build projects across London and Essex, for developers, businesses, institutions and private clients.
The Employer’s Agent Role Through the Project
- Employer’s Requirements — drafting the document that defines what the contractor must deliver; the single most important protection in D&B procurement.
- Tender and contract — running the tender, analysing Contractor’s Proposals against your Requirements, and completing the contract properly.
- Design review — monitoring the contractor’s developing design for compliance with the Requirements before it is built.
- Valuations and payment — certifying interim payments for work properly executed.
- Change control — pricing and instructing employer changes formally, so cost consequences are agreed in advance.
- Completion and defects — inspecting for practical completion, administering the rectification period and concluding the final account.
Why the Employer’s Requirements Decide Everything
In design and build, if it is not in the Employer’s Requirements, you have little right to demand it. Vague Requirements hand the contractor pricing power over every clarification — the classic route to a cheap tender and an expensive building. We write Requirements with the precision of a surveyor who has administered the consequences: performance specifications, quality benchmarks, submittal procedures and the testing and documentation you will need at handover.
Acting Solely in Your Interest
Unlike a traditional contract administrator, who certifies impartially between the parties, the employer’s agent acts for the employer alone. That distinction matters most when judgement calls arise — design compliance, quality standards, valuation of change. Our surveying background means those judgements are grounded in technical inspection, supported where needed by our site inspection and structural teams.
Developers, Funders and End Users
We act as EA on residential schemes, office and industrial projects and fit-outs — coordinating with funders’ development monitors, managing CDM duties through our principal designer service, and carrying projects through to a documented, warranted handover. If you are choosing between procurement routes, we will give you a straight assessment of whether design and build actually suits your project — and set up the alternative through our project management service if it does not.
Frequently Asked Questions
On design and build contracts, the EA is the client’s sole representative: preparing the Employer’s Requirements, running tender and contract, reviewing the contractor’s design, certifying payments, controlling changes and administering completion. The contractor manages the design; the EA makes sure it delivers what you contracted for.
They overlap but differ: the EA is a defined contractual role specific to design and build procurement, while a project manager leads a project across all stages regardless of contract form. On many D&B projects we perform both functions within one appointment.
Because in design and build the contractor prices and builds against them: anything vague or missing becomes a change you pay for, or a quality standard you cannot enforce. Precise Requirements at tender are the cheapest quality control you will ever buy.
Typically 1-3% of construction cost depending on project size and service scope, or a fixed fee on smaller schemes. The role routinely pays for itself in tender analysis and change control alone.
Funders commonly expect professional client-side administration on D&B schemes, alongside their own development monitor. We regularly perform the EA role on funded projects and coordinate reporting with the monitoring surveyor — including where we act as monitor on other schemes ourselves.