It's a strange fact that this was Tony Canham's first visit to the Branch. A Vice-President of the Chartered Institute and an active member since 1977, his humour, almost ebullient, but pertinent delivery (without notes) is always interesting and always informative. Shame that, coming from Norwich, he had such a poor audience, albeit depleted by the frisson of a wintery evening. The last time he was in Croydon was in his role as Assistant Project Engineer on the M.23!

The National Housebuilding Council ("NHBC") started in the 1930's, became an indemnifying and regulatory body soon after World War II. It publishes standards that its contractor members should observe. These cover everything relevant from damp-proofing to spread of tree roots. It also provides a Planning Supervisor service for the CDM Regulations.

As part of its function, if a registered (contractor) member fails in some way it will guarantee that the resultant defect is put right, within two years (structural) or 10 years (for general matters). (Query: is a dpc in a party wall not part of the structure?).

If a dispute occurs with the building owner, it will administer the means of settlement (of the dispute!). Due to recent changes in its rules, the first recourse is to conciliation and thus the number of NHBC arbitrations has declined in recent years to some 50 pa. They maintain a panel of arbitrators, by geographic areas, all construction experts, who have to take an annual CPD course. For reasons of economy, the numbers appointed to the panels are limited, so that on average the arbitrator could expect five references per year.

Tony described his experiences and the typical process of the arbitration, which is usually rather informal, as legal representation is seldom invoked. His first ever, resulted in proceedings where one party refused to take part: a baptism of fire!

The effect of NHBC standards and certification being incorporated under standard forms of contract was raised; the answer seemed to be "read the documents carefully".

Paul Darrington