Hiring a designer
The Hiring a designer section explains what UK interior designers charge, how VAT applies to design fees and renovation work, what a design contract must contain, and which health and safety duties CDM 2015 places on a homeowner who commissions building work.
The Hiring a designer section of Interior Designer UK is written for homeowners and landlords who are about to appoint an interior designer for a renovation in the United Kingdom. The articles set out how designers charge, using the BIID 2019 fees survey, the BIID client guide and dated UK price guides, and they explain which parts of a project carry 20 per cent VAT, which qualify for the 5 per cent reduced rate under VAT Notice 708, and which energy-saving installations are zero-rated until 31 March 2027. The section also covers the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015: who counts as a domestic client, how the client duties pass to the contractor or principal contractor, when a designer can take on the principal designer role by written agreement, and when a project must be notified to the Health and Safety Executive on form F10. Every figure carries its year and its source so that a client can check the claim before signing a contract.
Articles in Hiring a designer
The articles in the Hiring a designer section are listed below with the question each one answers, and every article carries its own sources list at the point of citation.
-
CDM 2015 for domestic clients
, 8 minute read
How CDM 2015 treats a homeowner as a domestic client: who the duties pass to, when a designer becomes principal designer, and the F10 notification thresholds.
-
Interior designer fees and VAT in the UK
, 10 minute read
UK interior designer fees in 2026: hourly, fixed, percentage and per-room rates from BIID and dated price guides, plus the VAT Notice 708 rules for 20 and 5 per cent.