News 115 new homes handed over in Tower Hamlets

115 new homes handed over in Tower Hamlets

Features

August 13, 2021

  • Client: London Borough of Tower Hamlets
  • Role: Employer’s Agent
  • Size: 115 units

PRP acted as Employers Agent to deliver the construction of 115 apartments built by Canary Wharf Group on the site of former industrial buildings in the Limehouse Cut conservation area.

We were appointed as Employers Agent when the superstructure was already complete under a basic sale agreement which we successfully amended to include the provision of paperwork and client inspections which proved valuable in the success of the scheme.

We developed a good working relationship with the site team and with wider LBTH stakeholders, which helped develop a spirit of collaborative working, adding to the project’s success. PRP influenced the smooth handover of the scheme in several ways;

  • Agreement of working procedures in respect of inspections and sign off procedures that gave clarity to all parties
  • early in the programme.
  • Encouraged LBTH post contract management and maintenance teams to regularly attended site meetings which they found helpful as gave them greater understanding of the scheme.
  • Using our paperwork tracker, we ensured that handover paperwork was issued by the contractor as it was received so it could then be verified by us to avoid pressure at handover.
  • We ensured that the contractor collated the O&M manuals as works progressed and that they could be viewed by all as a work in progress. This enabled the documents to be understood and accepted by LBTH prior to handover.

LBTH were responsible for all servicing and maintenance from handover. We worked with the contractor to develop a servicing and maintenance schedule detailing outline requirements, dates, warranties and other items. This schedule assisted LBHT in getting all agreements in place prior to handover.

Our Fire Safety team were able to provide an EWS form and Barchester Court was handed-over in April 2021 and was fully occupied shortly after.

Barchester Street was a very challenging scheme to deliver contractually with one of the main challenges being a very tight handover programme exacerbated by recurrent slippage, with a knock-on effect of an increasingly short snagging and de-snag timeframe in preparation for handover of the 115 units. PRP managed the process effectively by providing additional personnel to deal with the large volume of inspections as well as increasing the frequency of their site attendance to enable all units to be snagged & de-snagged to the required standard and timescale. We are very happy with the service that PRP provided on Barchester Street as their flexibility and capacity to deploy additional resources was instrumental to the successful delivery of the scheme.”

Winnie Osei - London Borough of Tower Hamlets Project Manager