Fitting furniture on a live site: who coordinates, and who answers

In short. If the area where the furniture is fitted is still a construction site, whoever fits it enters as an executing firm: technical and professional suitability, an operational safety plan and coordination by the execution coordinator. If the site is closed and the building has been handed over, article 26 of Legislative Decree 81/2008 applies and the reference document becomes the DUVRI, the interference risk assessment. Two different regimes with two different counterparts: the order should be written knowing which one will apply.

What changes while the site is still open

Legislative Decree 81/2008 defines a construction site as «any place where building or civil engineering works are carried out» among those listed in Annex X (article 89(1)(a)). While those works are under way the area has a clear chain of command, and anyone who comes in to work falls inside it. Where more than one firm operates, even at different times, the client appoints a design coordinator and, before the works are awarded, an execution coordinator (article 90(3) and (4)); there is a safety and coordination plan that forms an integral part of the works contract (article 100); every executing firm draws up its own operational safety plan, the POS (article 96(1)(g)), and the main contractor checks it for consistency before passing it to the execution coordinator (article 97).

One provision settles a recurring argument. Article 96(2) states that accepting the safety and coordination plan and drawing up the POS amount, for that site, to compliance with some of the obligations under article 26. In practice there is no DUVRI on a construction site: the safety and coordination plan takes its place. If somebody asks for one anyway it is not a whim — it is a signal that, for whoever runs it, that area is no longer a site.

Is fitting furniture a «building work»?

Annex X lists construction, maintenance, repair, demolition, conservation, remediation, refurbishment, equipping, conversion, renovation or dismantling of fixed works, excavation, and the assembly of prefabricated elements used to carry out building works. Placing a sofa, a bed or an armchair is not on that list. For panelling, a counter anchored to the structure or built-in wardrobes the line is finer, because it comes close to the equipping of a fixed work: that is a judgement for the design team and the coordinator, not for a supplier’s catalogue.

The decisive question, though, comes first: is that area a construction site today, or not? If it is, whoever enters is coordinated by the execution coordinator regardless of how they classify their own work. The answer is not in the supply contract but in the site programme, and it is worth settling at order stage rather than the week before delivery.

The documents you will be asked for

Before awarding works to a firm or a self-employed worker the client verifies technical and professional suitability, and Annex XVII sets out what has to be produced. For executing firms:

• Chamber of Commerce registration for an activity consistent with the work being awarded;
• the risk assessment document, or the self-certification allowed by article 29(5);
• the single contribution compliance certificate (DURC);
• a declaration of not being subject to suspension or disqualification measures under article 14.

For self-employed workers the list is different, and in the case of subcontracting the check is carried out by the main contractor. Add the POS and the identification badge that staff of contractors and subcontractors must wear visibly, with a photograph, the worker’s details and the name of the employer (article 26(8)). These are the documents that decide whether a crew gets in or waits at the gate: asking for them at order stage rather than at delivery is worth days of opening.

And if the site is closed and the building handed over?

The counterpart changes. There is no execution coordinator any more; there is the employer running the building, and article 26 applies: verification of technical and professional suitability, detailed information on the specific risks of the environment, cooperation and coordination, and the single interference risk assessment attached to the contract and updated as the work progresses.

The DUVRI is not always required: paragraph 3-bis excludes services of an intellectual nature, mere supplies of materials or equipment, and works or services not exceeding five man-days; the exclusion falls away where there is a high fire risk, confined spaces, carcinogenic, mutagenic or biological agents, asbestos, explosive atmospheres or the particular risks in Annex XI. This is where the commonest misunderstanding in furniture supply arises: a delivery without fitting may be a mere supply, a delivery with fitting is a work, and five man-days go quickly — two people for three days is six.

Who answers if a piece is damaged on site

This is the most frequent dispute of all, and it rarely starts with the fitting: it starts with storage. The furniture arrives because that was the date, the area is not ready, the pieces sit in a corridor, and two weeks later one of them has a marked corner. By then «whose fault is it» has no answer, because nobody wrote down who held that area. What settles the case is not a legal principle but a record: area handed over, date, condition of the rooms, who holds the keys, where pieces may be stored and for how many days.

Two moments then have to stay separate: delivery of the materials, signed on the delivery note, and delivery of the fitted work, signed when fitting is finished. Confusing them means accepting the work before it exists — and acceptance matters, because the client inspects the work before accepting it (article 1665 of the Civil Code) and, for non-apparent defects, notice must be given within sixty days of discovery, with the action time-barred two years after delivery (article 1667). These are short deadlines.

The lines to put in the order

Six items that cost nothing while you are negotiating and cost a great deal if they are missing:

• whether the area will still be a construction site at fitting, and who the execution coordinator is;
• who provides the safety and coordination plan, and to whom the POS is to be sent;
• which suitability documents are required, and the date by which they must be supplied;
• access, hours, use of the site hoist and the fitting sequence agreed with the works supervisor;
• storage: where, for how many days, at whose cost, under whose cover;
• two separate handovers, materials and fitted work, each with its own signed document.

When the site will be clear is a question for the project programme, which is the subject of the guide on when to order hotel furniture; site measurement, which happens on site under the same access constraints, is covered in the guide on who takes the measurements.

How we work

We deliver to sites worldwide. On residential and student housing contracts the design also takes site logistics into account, with deliveries staggered by phase, floor or block and fitting coordinated with the other trades; on marine contracts fitting on board is carried out by our own craftsmen. A single point of contact from drawing to delivery changes exactly this part of the job: when prototyping, sampling, production and logistics sit in the same workshop, the date of entry to site moves once rather than three times, and the party answering for that date is the one making the piece. On a hotel contract the most valuable thing is time: compliant, certified pieces delivered on schedule mean a fast opening, and a hotel that opens starts invoicing. Which documents have to arrive with the furniture is covered in the guide on documents; what the mock-up room fixes in writing, in the guide on the mock-up room.

Frequently asked questions

Does the firm fitting the furniture need a POS?

If the area is still a construction site, yes: the operational safety plan is drawn up by the employer of each executing firm (article 96(1)(g)) and the main contractor checks it for consistency before passing it to the execution coordinator. If the site is closed the POS does not come into it, and article 26 governs instead.

Is a DUVRI needed for fitting furniture?

Not on a construction site: article 96(2) provides that accepting the safety and coordination plan and drawing up the POS also discharge, for that site, the obligations under article 26 referred to in the provision. Off site, yes, subject to the exclusions in paragraph 3-bis.

Is assembling furniture a building work?

Fitting loose furniture does not appear in Annex X. Elements fixed to the structure may come close to the equipping of a fixed work, and that judgement belongs to the design team. In any case, if the area is a construction site, whoever enters is coordinated by the execution coordinator.

By when must a defect found after fitting be reported?

Within sixty days of discovery for non-conformities and defects that were not apparent on acceptance; the action against the contractor is time-barred two years after delivery of the work (article 1667 of the Italian Civil Code).

Talk to us The contract division

The rules cited on this page are Italian and apply to projects in Italy; outside Italy the applicable health and safety regime and the contract itself govern. This page cites Legislative Decree 81/2008: article 26(1), (2), (3), (3-bis) and (8); article 29(5); article 89(1)(a); article 90(3) and (4); article 96(1)(g) and (2); articles 97 and 100; Annexes X, XI and XVII. And articles 1665 and 1667 of the Italian Civil Code. How an individual operation is classified, and which obligations apply to your site, remain matters for the client, the works manager and the execution coordinator.